Page 9 of Be My Endgame

It didn’t sting, coming from Jeff, because Alex knew it truly was a joke—Jeff had seen how bloodyhardAlex had worked to make Liverpool’s starting squad at the age of nineteen, always the first at practice and the last to leave. Jeff also knew that being the product of selective breeding had done a fat lot of nothing for Alex’s football career.

Should have gone into cricket. Maybe then his parents would have deigned to show up to his matches.

“Fuck you very much,” Alex told Jeff, tone and smile pleasant.

Jeff clutched a dramatic hand to his chest. “Not inpublic, dear.”

Moments like this made it rather hard to believe that Jeff was straight. If he weren’t, though, Alex would have been the first to know because Jeff didn’t do secrets and was proud to defy expectations.

Sometimes, Alex wished he could muster the same immunity to other people’s judgement.

Lee couldn’t sayhe was surprised when Kieran put him on the same team as Alex for the practice match. It was fine, mostly. There were a couple of moments when Alex should have passed to Lee instead of Jeff or Dec, and Lee might have taken a shot or two at the goal even when Alex had been better positioned, but it was fine. Mostly.

It appeared as though Oliver disagreed.

“Let’s talk about Alex,” he said as soon as Lee returned from the shower.

Lee draped his towel over the back of a chair and retrieved the set of clothes he’d laid out earlier on the crisp white bedspread. “Let’s not.”

Oliver was a master at wielding expectant silence like a weapon. When Lee glanced over while buttoning up his jeans, Oliver was still perched on the edge of his bed, simply waiting.

“Oliver.”

“Lee.”

“Oliver.”

“You know it’s only a matter of time until Kieran addresses it with you both. Might as well practise what you’re going to say.”

“I’m hardly gonna tell the coach I used to have a crush on him and he took it badly.” Lee hadn’t exactly meant to say that, but he didn’t want to take it back either.

“You had a crush on Alex?” Oliver clarified.

“Not on Kieran, that’s for sure. I mean, he’s fit for his age, but…” Lee pulled on a faded T-shirt and sat down on the other bed, abruptly tired. He was not looking forward to filming that ad campaign later today. “Y’know. Not looking to date someone who could be my daddy, for all I know.”

Oliver gave Lee a critical once-over. “No family resemblance, far as I can tell. I think you’re safe.”

“Not the point.”

“True.” Oliver leaned forward, elbows on his thighs. “Because the point is that you used to have a crush on Alex and he took it badly. Like, how badly?”

“Stone walls have been known to show more emotion.” Lee worried his bottom lip with his teeth, then realised he was doing it and stopped. “That’s before he started sniping at me any chance he got. Didn’t out me, though, so I guess there’s that.”

“That sucks, mate.” Oliver seemed to take a moment to digest things, frowning slightly. “How did he even find out?”

“I, uh.” And this was where it got embarrassing. “I called him pretty boy. Like, as a joke, yeah? But also kind of not as a joke.”

“Pretty boy?” Oliver echoed, his tone just a tad incredulous. Fair enough—Lee probably deserved that.

“I was twenty and confused and my only experience with guy-on-guy stuff had been porn, okay?”

“Pretty boy, though?” A smile twitched around Oliver’s wide mouth. “Maybe he just took offence to your poor attempt at flirting. Or he thought you were mocking him or something.”

Lee considered it. He didn’t think so, but it wasn’t like they’d known each other well. “I mean—maybe?”

“Well, does he definitely know you’re gay?

“Why else would he have gone all weird?”

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