Page 84 of After the Siren
Keeley gave him a knowing look. ‘Don’t bother. I know him, and neither of you arethatsubtle. He’s worse, though. A couple of times I thought I was going to have to spray him with the hose.’
Theo snorted. ‘I guess he feels like he doesn’t have to hide stuff here.’
‘Yeah,’ Keeley said, sounding a little sad.
He wondered if he was about to be threatened. Keeley was clearly a staunch defender of Jake.
‘Are you going to threaten me?’ he asked, because they might as well get it over with.
She burst out laughing, and Jake glanced across at them. She waved at him and he grinned and turned to fend off a spirited assault by one of the kids.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ve assessed you as at equal risk of having your heart broken, so no threats.’
Theo felt like he should protest. They weren’t supposed to be doing anything with the possibility of ending in broken hearts.
Before he could formulate a response, Keeley continued. ‘Have you guys talked much about Kyle?’ She was tracing shapes in the sand at the base of the steps with one of her big toes.
‘Not heaps,’ Theo said. On the one hand, he was burningly curious about Kyle, especially after the earlier encounter. On the other hand, trying to get information about him from Jake’s best friend felt like a recipe for disaster.
Keeley studied him for a few moments, and Theo wanted to shift under the look. It was inquisitive. Measuring. Then she seemed to come to some sort of decision and looked away, her gaze tracking down the backyard again.
‘I’m going to tell you some stuff about Kyle and Jake,’ she said, voice quiet. ‘Things I noticed, right? I’m not breaking his confidence but ... I’m going to tell you because you seem like agood guy, and whatever the two of you are doing, I think you care about Jake. And because of what you said to Kyle today.’
‘I do care about Jake.’ It felt like a dangerous confession. ‘We’re friends.’
She wiped away the design in the sand with her foot and started again. ‘He told you about the break-up?’
‘Yeah, a while ago. He said they broke up because Jake wouldn’t come out.’
Keeley sighed. ‘I don’t think Kyle ever thought Jake would say no to him. I don’t think he ever had before.’ She caught Theo’s look and shrugged. ‘I don’t really mean likethat. Though probably that, too. I just mean – well, Kyle’s four years older than we are. Me and Jake, I mean. We were good mates with Kyle’s younger brother, Olly, so Kyle was around a fair bit, and you know what it’s like when you’re a kid. Kyle seemed like he was socool.I used to give Jake so much shit because his crush was that obvious.’
Theo could imagine. He had developed a crippling and humiliating crush on his friend’s older sister at the age of thirteen. Recovery had been slow and painful.
‘Kyle never looked twice at him – obviously, we were babies – but then Jake turned eighteen and got drafted and came back looking like ... well, likethat.’
She waved a hand at Jake, who was in the process of showing the niblings how to take an overhead mark. He was, for once, wearing a shirt, but it was an old footy singlet that didn’t leave much to the imagination.
‘And nothing happened, not for ages, but there was just something different in the way he looked at Jake, you know? He was suddenly keen to tell Jake all about his job and his glamorous friends and whatever else. He was around a lot more, and then he invited Jake down to the Peninsula for New Year’s and, well, that was that.’ She scowled. ‘Jake was so fuckinghappy. Whenever I think about it, I want to go and punch Kyle in his stupid symmetrical face.’
That was an urge Theo shared.
‘But it was like ... like Jake felt he had to begratefulthat Kyle wanted to be with him. And especially that Kyle was willing to be with him when he wasn’t out. I don’t know if things would have been different if hehadbeen out, but there was just this ... dynamic. Jake was always working to make up for the fact he was closeted. It was always Jake making the compromises, you know? Jake driving to Canberra, Jake dropping things to go and see Kyle, Jake making the time, Jake buying Kyle shit even though Kyle made plenty of money. Like Kyle never had to make any effort because he’d compromised on that one thing.’ She grimaced. ‘Ihatedit.’
‘Kyle seems like a shithead.’
Keeley grinned. ‘You won’t hear any arguments from me. But I’m being unfair. He was ... charming. Charismatic. Smart, and funny.’
‘Hot,’ Theo added.
‘That too. He can be pretty irresistible when he wants to be.’
‘I guess it would be tough being with someone closeted,’ Theo observed. Cautiously.
Keeley glanced across at him. ‘Of course. And to be honest, if Kyle had called it quits because of that, I would have understood. I still would’ve thought he was a dick, but I get it. It wasn’t the fact he decided he couldn’t do it – it was the ultimatum. You don’t do that if you love someone.’
‘I guess you don’t.’
Theo thought about Sarah and the moment he’d known it was over between them. It felt like a lifetime ago.
