Page 11 of The Fly-Half

I didn’t know how easy it would be to get my point across without telling him how I felt. There was a risk that once I started, all my emotions would simply pour out of me and I’d end up spilling my guts to him, which was the last thing I wanted.

I couldn’t put him on the spot like that. Our friendship would never recover and I’d lose the most important person in my life.

“Stop harassing him,” Jonny said, putting his arm around my shoulder. “It’s weird.”

“I’m not harassing him, grumble guts. I just want Devon to know that I support his endeavours! Besides, if he gets a drag boyfriend, then I’ll have someone else who understands the pains of finding fucking glitter and rhinestones everywhere!”

“Talk to West,” Jonny said. “He’s in the same boat.”

“I know, but if there’s three of us, we can start a little club. A sympathy group! For supportive partners of drag artists who end up covered in glitter by association.”

I chuckled, trying not to focus on the warm weight of Jonny’s arm across my shoulders. “If it ever gets that far, I’ll let you know.”

Any further conversation was cut off by Tommy, the assistant head coach, blowing his whistle and gesturing for all of us to gather around for passing drills. He split us randomly into two lines and made us spread out across the pitch. The drills were fairly simple ones, but on the day the things that made the difference were the small things done right. If we couldn’t pass swiftly and accurately, then that undermined everything else we’d worked on.

We were currently third in the Premiership with five wins and two losses, and while we’d had our best start to the season in years, that didn’t mean it would stay that way. It would only take a few mistakes for everything to fall apart.

Jonny was further down my line, throwing passes with speed and deadly accuracy as we moved forward. I tried to ignore the way his shorts were riding up around his thighs as he ran and focus on catching the ball from Bailey and Danny, who were on either side of me. I fumbled one and stumbled to recover, trying not to let the ball slip through my arms.

“You okay?” Bailey called.

“Yeah, just tripped over my own feet,” I said with a half laugh as I chucked the ball at Danny, trying to brush off the moment as quickly as possible.

I really needed to get out more.

I was going to have to ask Peaches for that drink.

Peaches

How was training? Did you do good rugby?

Peaches

I spent all day working with this godawful feather boa thing, so it looks like several pillows exploded all over my living room.

Devon

Was it worth it at least? Do you like what you ended up with?

Peaches

God no, it’s hideous as fuck. I binned it! Absolute waste of a day but at least it confirmed I should never work with feathers.

Devon

Haha is it worse than glitter then? I know Ryan’s house is covered in the stuff. Mason always complains about it.

Devon

And yeah, training was good. Haven’t got a match this week so it’s mostly just keeping things ticking over, skills practice, stuff like that.

Peaches

You know, you still haven’t sent me a photo of you in your shorts. All I’ve seen are the ones from Instagram.

Devon

Next time I put them on I’ll send you a pic.

---