Page 11 of After the Siren

‘As for the two of you,’ Davo continued, looking at them like dog shit on a sneaker, ‘you can both get the fuck off this oval . I don’t give a flying fuck what the problem is, but you can come back out here once you’re ready to behave like adults.

’ He took a deep breath. ‘You’ve got extras for the next four days.

I want you here at six every morning, and I will personally make sure you’re too fucking tired to get into it again. ’

Fuck. They each had individual programs, but tomorrow was supposed to be the last training session of the year.

Jake had planned to leave for home directly afterward.

To spend some proper time with his mum. His anger had trickled away, and now all he could think about was having to call his mum to explain why he couldn’t come home until Christmas Day, why he wouldn’t be there to do everything they’d planned.

‘But,’ Jake started. ‘It’s —’

Davo went even redder. ‘Yes, Cunningham, it’s Christmas. Do I look like I give a fuck? If you wanted a Christmas break, you shouldn’t have fought one of your teammates.’

‘Right,’ Jake managed. He realised, on an awful inhale, that he was on the verge of tears. He bit the inside of his mouth, trying to keep it together.

‘And as for you,’ Davo said, turning to Bestavros, ‘I suggest you spend more time earning a place on this team and less time getting into it with someone who’s proved he deserves his.’

‘I understand,’ Bestavros said, stony-faced.

Davo waved a dismissal and Jake headed towards the rooms without looking back.

Fuck.

A combination of panic and trembling rage got Theo off the oval and into the gym before his brain really had time to process what had happened.

They may have been kicked out of the rest of training, but Theo still had a conditioning workout he was supposed to do.

He wanted to be done and out of the gym before the others got off the field.

Lifting weights turned out to be a good outlet for the sick energy crackling under his skin.

His brain fell into a spiral of every shitty thing that might flow from that one stupid snipe.

Lodged, every now and again, on the way Cunningham had looked at him when he’d said don’t .

He could almost taste the horrible blend of guilt and satisfaction every time he thought about the fact he’d finally gotten to Cunningham.

Except maybe he’d done that better than he’d meant to. And since when had he sledged using misogynist bullshit? It had been the kind of sledge packed in layers of everything he loathed about footy culture. Let alone taunting Jake for doing exactly the same thing Theo was doing.

Just as he realised he was benching slightly more than he should have been without a spotter – though if he crushed all his ribs at least he wouldn’t need to deal with the consequences of his actions – hands appeared and grabbed the bar. Yelks looked down at him, frowning, and helped Theo rack it.

‘Thanks,’ Theo wheezed.

He hadn’t had much to do with Yelks yet.

The Falcons captain was a big guy – 6′5″ according to the stats sheet – with long, dark-blond hair and striking green eyes.

He was softly spoken off the field, almost gentle, as though he was acutely aware of how much space he took up.

On the field he was a towering presence at fullback: the last line of defence, known for his physicality and his uncanny sense for the game. Theo didn’t know what to make of him.

Theo sat up, swinging his legs around so he was sitting sideways on the bench. Yelks sat down beside him and handed him a protein shake.

‘Thanks.’

‘No worries. You want to tell me what happened out there?’

Theo popped the lid off the shaker and took a sip to avoid answering. Once he’d swallowed, he said, ‘Did you ask Cunningham?’

‘I would have if I’d been able to find him. I still will. But I’d like to hear it from you.’

Theo took another sip.

Yelks folded his hands in his lap. ‘Davo is happy for me to handle this. I can tell you that no matter what it was, you’re not looking at any serious disciplinary consequences, because it’s the first time there’s been an issue.

But.’ He pinned Theo with those eerie green eyes.

‘This is a close-knit group. You and Cunningham have been needling each other for weeks – I’m not that oblivious.

We need to fix it before it becomes a real problem. ’

Theo put the shake aside and stared at the floor between his feet. The jittery energy he’d carried into the gym had drained away and now he just felt hollowed out. There was no good answer to that question. He pisses me off. God, he was an adult. A professional.

Yelks seemed content to sit in silence for as long as it took.

‘I guess we got off on the wrong foot,’ Theo said, finally. ‘And things ... escalated.’

‘Okay. Why the wrong foot?’

‘I ... that episode of Full Forward . I wanted Cunningham to apologise.’

Yelks nodded. ‘That’s fair enough. And he didn’t?’

‘No.’

‘Did you raise it with him?’

‘No.’

‘And things escalated?’

Theo managed to get out a version of the truth – one that omitted several of the important points – painfully aware that half the story sounded even worse than the full story. Yelks looked like he suspected Theo was holding something back, but he didn’t say anything about it.

‘And what did you say to him today?’ Yelks asked, gentle but implacable.

Theo would have given most of his salary to sink into the ground . He managed to explain what he’d said about Cunningham’s mum, though he made it sound as though that had been all – like he’d doubled down on that.

‘Right,’ Yelks said, brow furrowed.

‘I know it wasn’t okay,’ Theo said, forcing himself to meet Yelks’ eyes. ‘I wouldn’t ... it’s not the sort of thing I’d usually say. He ...’ He rattles me. He gets under my skin.

Yelks nodded. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’ He spent a few moments studying one of the elliptical machines and then seemed to come to a decision. ‘Look, Theo, I’m not telling you anything that isn’t already pretty well known, but I am going to tell you this because it might help mend fences.’

Theo froze. He couldn’t mean —

‘Jake didn’t have the easiest time with his parents.

His biological father was ...’ Yelks’ mouth twisted.

‘Not a good guy. He left when Jake was very young. Jake’s mum raised him, and when he was in prep, she, uh, came out as a lesbian, and started a relationship with a woman.

I don’t think he had an easy time. To be clear, I’m not telling you anything confidential, he’s talked about this openly. ’

‘Shit,’ Theo said. If he’d wanted to sink into the floor before, now he wanted to sink into the middle of the earth. Did Cunningham think he’d known all that?

Yelks sighed. ‘He’s very close to his mum. I know he hears plenty about her on the field, and it doesn’t usually bother him. But for whatever reason, it got to him today.’

‘He probably didn’t ... expect that from a teammate.’ Theo felt shame crawling all over his body. When had he forgotten how to be a team player? He’d played with guys like Cunningham before. Guys who were worse than Cunningham. But he’d never goaded one of them into taking a swing.

‘Probably not.’ Yelks paused again. He spoke certain words with a very faint accent; Eastern European, Theo thought.

Something like that. ‘Listen, Theo, I know settling in here can’t be easy.

I understand that you had reason to dislike Cunningham, and I’m going to speak to him about his behaviour.

But he’s not a bad guy. He loves this team, and he loves his teammates.

I don’t need you to be best friends, but you need to be able to work together.

I should have intervened earlier, and that’s on me, but I thought you boys might sort it out, especially with Xen and Paddy in the mix. ’

Theo nodded. Yelks put a hand on his shoulder. It was the sort of paternal gesture Theo’s own father never went in for. He wondered if Yelks ever got tired of being the dad to fifteen men in their twenties with large salaries and underdeveloped frontal lobes. Probably.

‘I’ll apologise,’ Theo said, and meant it.

‘I ...’ This felt like a vulnerable admission to make, but it wasn’t as if anything he said was going to make Yelks think worse of him after what had happened that morning.

‘I’ve been struggling a bit with my game, and the way Cunningham plays . .. it makes it harder, sometimes.’

Yelks smiled. ‘He is that type of player. Nobody is comparing you to Cunningham, though. There’s a real place for you in this team.

You’ve got something we need, and you’ve got time to develop it.

You just focus on running your own race, and I’ll tell Cunningham to cool it in training.

There’ve been days where I thought you might be the one to punch him, and I think he might have deserved it.

’ He gave Theo a conspiratorial smile. ‘Don’t tell anyone I said that. ’

Theo smiled back. ‘Deal.’ This was a weird team. He liked it. ‘I’m still going to have to do the extras, aren’t I?’

Yelks slapped him on the back. ‘They’ll give you a good appetite for Christmas lunch.’

The problem with your captain living close by was that if, say, you were ignoring his calls, he could rock up on your doorstep with two boxes of takeaway pierogi and a sixpack of craft beer.

Jake opened the door and let Yelks in. He’d never shut the door on Yelks’ pierogi.

Nobody knew where he got them, but they were good .

So good that Xen and Paddy had once spent several weeks visiting every Polish restaurant they could find, trying to track down the source.

They hadn’t, though Paddy had discovered he really liked borscht.