Page 53 of We Were Never Lovers
Sean shook his head and turned for the tunnel. He didn’t want to do this in front of fifty thousand people and all their teammates.
Jack grabbed his bicep. Sean shook him off quickly and he hoped subtly, and jogged away.
“Didn’t you get my messages?” Jack called after him, his voice horribly young for a football field, for a place not meant for boys, but men.
Sean had got his messages. All of them. He’d debated blocking him, but he took perverse pleasure in reading them and feeling angry. The first messages were Jack checking in on how he was after the hit, but they were insulting in how much they downplayed the seriousness of what he’d done.
U all good? Didn’t see ya, accompanied with a smiling emoji was the first one and it took everything in Sean’s arsenal not to reply:how do you miss someone you’re looking right at? How do you miss landing a deliberate fucking hit to someone’s fucking head?
But then he realised Jack must’ve been joking. He thought this was funny?
And later Jack sent,Was hoping to catch u afta but ur not in the rooms. Let me know where u planning to stay for the TAC cup.
And that was the end of the messages about the hit. Sean had almost been impressed by the nerve of it—Jack really was the white boy with tickets on himself Sean had pegged him for the first time he’d seen him, and not the guy he’d hung out with that night.
Jack had kept texting—random thoughts about a game, his nerves before the draft, memes—seemingly undeterred by Sean’s lack of response, although there was a nervous energy to the texts. The night after the first time they played against each other in Melbourne, he’d told Sean, stilted even over text, that it wasn’t him, that he’d never say that, that it was his friend but if they’d known that, his friend would’ve been expelled. He couldn’t let his best mate get expelled. Sean had wanted to ask what the fuck he was on about—Sean had plainly seen Jack hit him, so was he really trying to palm this off onto his mate? But then what did he mean “say that”? Say what? Sean hadn’t replied, but then he’d gotten a series of texts from an unknown number.
Hey, Tony Strano here, Jack gave me your number. Jack never said that shit, it was me. I was just tryin to get a rise outta you before the game. Gotta shut you down.
Ended with a laughing emoji. Sean frowned—he remembered the guy; he was the defender. Curly brown hair, pale skin, Italian looking dude. He wasn’t much of a player and Sean handled him easily.
His phone buzzed again.
Jack’s a top fucking bloke. He’d never say that shit. And he only said he did to protect me. So give him a rest, alright?
Sean had better shit to do than gossip with Jack’s wanker friend so he’d shoved his phone under his pillow and goneand done just that. His mum was visiting since Jayden was in Perth for another game, and he’d gone out into the living room to find Jayden and Ben on the couch, Jayden instantly ripping into him for being on his phone. He’d been teasing him about having a girlfriend since the footy carnival because he was always checking it. Sean deflected his embarrassment by tackling Jayden to the ground and wrestling until his mum told them to knock it off, berating Jayden about Sean’s head and, once Jayden let him go, telling Sean his girlfriend was more than welcome to visit. She’d always put a strange emphasis on ‘girlfriend’ and now he wondered if he’d ever said anything to her, if she’d always known.
He’d gone back to his room after a carefully regulated hour, fished his phone out to a message from Jack, sent just after Tony’s.
Tony said he texted. I gave him your number. Don’t worry, he won’t text again. I shouldn’t have taken the fall for him. But I swear, it wasn’t me. I’d never say that shit and not just cos I’m not like that, but cos I’d never say that to YOU.
Jack had looked like a stone-cold asshole before that game. Sean could still picture it—the clench of his jaw, the fury in his eyes as he stared past the coach and the other players on his team as some discussion happened that Sean couldn’t hear. He’d put it down to Jack ignoring him because of the night before, but now it seemed like Jack was saying he’d taken the fall for this dude for saying—
He tapped over to the messages from Tony, heart pounding.
What the fuck did u say?
Typing bubbles appeared.
I called u an ape.
He felt like the asshole reached through the phone and throttled him.
And Jack said it was him?
Yeah, cos I woulda been expelled, but Jack had no strikes so he just got suspended.
So, Jack stuck up for a racist cunt.
Sean’s head buzzed, adrenaline coursing through him. He glanced up at the previous text, Jack apologising again, saying it wasn’t him, asking Sean to please talk to him again.
He looked at the “YOU” in all caps and hated the swoop in his stomach.
A new message popped up. Sean wondered what else he had to say, the first message was practically a novel. But he was getting used to Jack texting long messages, so he didn’t know why he was surprised. Didn’t know why he opened the thread every other day to read over them.
Please tell me what I can do. I really want to be friends again. I wish I’d never done it. I wasn’t thinking.
Another message popped up while Sean traced over the words again and again.
