Fragments (9 page)

I barely had her there a second before she panted, “I’ve heard you fuck hard, Alex. Condoms are in the top drawer, so show me what you’ve got.”

I reached over to the drawer, sheathed myself and leant into her body with pleasure. “Hold on, it’s gonna be a fuckin’ hard ride.”

With a quick thrust I was in, no hesitation whatsoever. Grinding into her, I blocked out the argument with my dad and the freeze out by Bea. I concentrated on just feeling.

Whilst I poured myself into Stacey, my mind flicked back to Bea’s retreating back going into her house, then my dad’s grip on my arm. Blocking them out took effort.  These distractions though, made it easier.

When we were done, I didn’t stay to cuddle. I never did. Cuddling meant commitment, and while I would hang out with my girlfriends, they knew that they were a temporary filler. Driving off in my truck, I was struck again by thoughts of Bea. My gut tightened as the fear of her severing our friendship surfaced.  What in the hell was going on?

Before I arrived home, I had three messages waiting for me from Stacey. Dating her took a lot of time. She filled my free time constantly. She texted, called, emailed—any which way she could contact me, she did. If she didn’t have a mouth that a Hoover would envy, it would have been so much easier to dump her, but I was a guy … so, yeah. The release I needed was on tap, so I wasn’t gonna lie, I took it. Now, it was biting me in the arse. 

*              *              *              *              *

Finally, by the end of the week, I had some ‘me’ time. Football training. We trained twice a week and played most Sunday afternoons. On Sunday, we had a bye, so we only had training. By the time this Thursday rolled around, I was ready to let off some steam with the boys. Robbie and I had been playing since we were youngsters, so the training sessions didn’t faze us. We thrived on Coach kicking the shit out of us. If it didn’t hurt, then you were just being a pussy. We trained after school on the oval that sat between the two school campuses. It made it easier for the juniors to train there too, as they often watched us when they’d finished. Us dickheads felt like legends while the juniors worshipped us.

              By the time the end of the school day had finally arrived, I ran to the gym to change. It had been a few days since Bea last spoke to me. The stress of my dad constantly leering at me didn’t help either. They both held onto me like a vice. The thought of using footy training to blow off steam- I couldn’t break the smile from my face if I tried.  My movements quickened as I eagerly pulled my shorts on and threw my bag into my locker.  Robbie had already changed, along with the other guys—Sam, Ty, Jace, while other team mates strolled into the gym high fiving each other. I loved the pre-training vibe.  Even the stale stench of sweat that lingered in the air couldn’t dampen our spirits. I was ready for Coach.

Ty squeezed Jace’s bicep as he walked to the exit.

“Still a scrawny prick, aren’t you?” As he passed, Jace’s hand whipped out and flicked him quickly in the nuts. Ty clutched his nut sack and hunched over, wheezing and sucking in deep breaths.

“I might be scrawny, but I’m fast. Who’s got the scrawny prick now? Not me, that’s for sure.”  Laughing, he swung open the door and left, leaving Ty to tend to his nut sack.

“Mate.” Sam laughed. “You kinda did ask for that.” Tapping Ty on the shoulder, he whistled after Jace.

“Piss off,” Ty wheezed. “I was only joking.”

“Yeah, well you know he has small-man syndrome. Best to not fire the fucker up.” Robbie smirked; shaking his head and holding the door open for us. “Come on, you’ll be fine. Man up. Coach will bust more than your sack if you don’t hurry up and get out of here.” 

I knew better than to give Jace any shit.  Any kid in the Army Reserves knew how to pack a punch, or at least, a flick.  Watching Jace and Ty was like watching David and Goliath. Ty was a gym nut like his twin, Sam. Today’s session was going to be interesting after that bit of foreplay.

“Let’s fucking do this!” I pointed to the air, keen to get over to Coach.

Jogging over to the others, I started swinging my arms across my chest, eager to get warmed up. I missed a few marks in our last game and Coach had drilled me for it. I didn’t want to let him down. He was a father-like figure to me, and I respected him. Jogging on the spot next to Robbie, I was determined to keep my mind clear. Today, I wanted to sweat it out. Bea ignoring me had thrown me off my game and I didn’t like it.

We were the Mallees and our maroon Guernseys had a thick white
V
running down the front of them. We had also managed to pick up some local sponsorship, after winning the premiership three years running. It was epic being the town’s favourite.

“Let’s get this bitch on, ladies! Hey, Coach!” I shouted, nodding over to him. The boys near me jumped from foot to foot in their spot jogging; eager to burst out into a proper run. I wasn’t the only one in the mood for blowing off steam.

“Okay, fellas,” Coach started, “you know the drill. Let’s start stretching.” We stopped jogging as he proceeded to get us to work our stretches. No one said a word. It was our quiet time. After a few neck stretches, we then worked on our legs.

As I bent over to touch my toes, our silence was broken when I heard an almighty howl.

“Check out my baby’s arse! He has the best arse, EVER!”

Oh, shit. Don’t tell me.
Bending forward, I turned my head in the direction of the voice. Standing by the fence-line was Stacey and her two friends.
Fuck
.

“She belong to you?” I looked back. Coach was staring at me. “Because if she does, I’d appreciate it if she remained quiet during our sessions. We don’t need distractions with the premiership coming up.” I externally cringed and sighed.

“Yeah, sorry, Coach. That’s my girlfriend, Stacey. I don’t remember telling her that I was here. You want me to go over there?” I looked around the group and saw the boys grinning at me and wiggling their arses. Fuckers. I was going to get into trouble for head tackling today. Arse to grass. Ty was wiggling his arse most of all. Looked like his nuts needed another flick.

“Yeah, laugh about it, Ty.” Lowering my voice to avoid the wrath of Coach, I said, “Shame your balls finally dropped as I’m about to kick them up your arse, choirboy.”

We finished stretching and I hoped we wouldn’t hear any more from her, but anytime I bent over or stretched my arms up, we heard catcalls. Her claiming me in front of my brothers was a joke.

Coach tipped up the ball bag and we paired up to handball them to each other. Normally, I was with Robbie, but he’d decided to pair him up with Liam. Jace and I were paired, and I was happy with that as he could handball straight. While we were tossing the ball back and forth, Stacey quieted down.
Finally.
Just as I was focusing on drilling the ball, Jace’s voice piped up.

“Hey man, I hate to say this, but you do know your girl has banged a few of the guys on our team, right?”

I continued to pass the ball back, saying,

“We don’t talk about each other’s pasts, mate. You know I’m no saint.”

We kept handballing the ball, but I started thinking back to his comment. It didn’t surprise me. After all, she did screw me pretty quickly. She was eager to please, and at the time, I guess that distracted me. Flicking the ball back and forth, my eyes travelled to my teammates. Wondering who she’d banged on the team, was not good. Sure, we had a few chicks in common, but the way Jace said it, now made it sound dirty.

“Okay, boys, time for the shuffle trials. You need to pick up speed from Tuesday.” We continued shuffling, but my session was constantly interrupted by Stacey’s inane shouts outs of, “Go baby! Go!” and her whistles. Her distractions proved too much when I momentarily lost concentration and half tripped in my step, losing my momentum. The beep sounded, and I narrowly missed the target. For fuck’s sake! Stomping the ground, I was pissed that I wasn’t in sync with Robbie, like I normally was.

“Hey mate, tough break out there.” Robbie approached me, offering me a water bottle.

I grabbed it and nodded in thanks. “Yeah, can’t believe I missed that. It was so close. She distracted me. Coach is going to kick my arse.”

Robbie laughed and patted me on the back. “Oh, but what a fine arse it is, according to Stacey.” He winked. “She is a wild cat, bro. You sure she’s not a bit crazy too?” Oh she was crazy, all right.
Why in the hell am I with her again?
             

“Yeah, she’s loud, too,” I snapped. “I didn’t tell her I was here; does she have a GPS on my arse or something?” We both laughed, and headed back to the group. By now the trials had finished.

“Reynolds!” Coach bellowed.
Oh shit. I knew what was coming.
“Seeing as you lost focus out there, how's about you gain some by giving me ten laps of the oval to remember what you’re here for? That should give you enough thinking time.” My teammates roared with laughter while high fiving each other.

“The rest of you boys split up; let’s have a scratch match. Losers have to run five laps. Let’s go!”

I jogged to the perimeter of the oval and began my hard slog. As I got closer to where Stacey was, her eyes lit up as she started laughing. So much for pitying my laps.

“Oh poor baby! You got in trouble! That’s hilarious!” She giggled alongside her friends. Her phone was in her hand, and she texted someone.

“I’ll see you after you’re done, baby, and make you feel better.”
Fuck that.
No matter what distraction she gave me, I was not spending time with her now. The boys were already going to rip into me about this for weeks. Dammit.

After training, we headed to the gym to shower and get organised for next week. Coach gave us a quick pep talk about the team we were facing in a week’s time, while reminding us to wash our Guernseys. I showered quickly, eager to get out of here. The boys gave me flat-out shit about my arse while we showered, and I wanted to go before I pushed someone’s face into a wall. Once I dressed, I saluted the boys with my middle finger and headed out.

I didn’t make it far out of the door before Coach called out to me. I hung my head, ready for his lecture. Before he started, I couldn’t help but mutter, “I’m so sorry, Coach. I really didn’t know she would be here. She’s a pain in the arse. It won’t happen again.” I adjusted my duffle bag on my right shoulder and looked up at him.

He sighed heavily. “Reynolds, I’m not here to lecture you. I just wanted to see if everything was all right. Your overexcitement made you look ready to start a war out there today. You okay?”

I looked up, shocked that he had noticed.

“Yeah, I’m fine—just a few personal issues. I was just eager to burn off some steam. But I’ll be sorting them out soon. Next week, you won’t even notice at the match. So, it’ll be fine. Um, thanks for asking.”

He patted my shoulder and headed towards his car.

Stacey was fast approaching me as I headed in the direction of the late bus.

“Baby, I missed you!” she squealed, jumping into my arms. I held her hips for a moment before pushing her down and away from me.

“Not now, Stace. I’m not in the mood,” I barked, stomping away. 

“Oh baby, I didn’t mean to get you into trouble. I was just, like, so excited to see you out there. You looked so hot!” She giggled. That giggle! How had I not noticed it before? I kept walking to the bus stop, but she followed me.

“Why are you even here? I didn’t ask you to come. It’s just for the boys and me.”

She laughed and smacked my shoulder, saying, “I wanted to see you, dummy. I didn’t realise you had some dumb bromance thing happening.” She gripped my forearm, stopping me in my tracks.

“Aren’t you glad to see me?” She frowned. “I thought you‘d be happy that I made the effort to care about your interests.”

I sighed and look at her. Her forehead wrinkled as she stared back at me.

“Look,” I said gently, rubbing her face. “It was nice of you, but sometimes I just need me time. It’s nothing against you; it’s just me. I have things I need to do by myself.” She stiffened at my touch and glared at me.

“What do you mean, you need ‘me time’?” she said, using her fingers to emphasise her words. “I thought we were building something. We should be hanging out more often.”

Her eyes squinted as she glared at me.

“Oh, my God! You’re talking about spending time with that bitch Trice, aren’t you?” she screeched. 

I stood back, frowning at her. Where in the hell did that come from?

“Trice is my
friend
, Stacey, but that’s not what I mean. Football training is
my time
. But now that you reminded me, I’m catching up with Trice on Sunday. I need to talk to her about something, so I won’t be around until after footy, because I’ll be seeing her just before.” 

Stacey huffed at me, unimpressed.

“I can’t believe you’re going to hang out with another girl! I wouldn’t do that to you!” She crossed her arms, her voice getting louder. I shushed her and tried to touch her face again, but she turned away.

“Stace, babe, it’s nothing. She’s just a friend. I promise you. I’m seeing you Saturday night, remember?” In an instant, her eyes changed from irate to calm. She nodded and then leant up to kiss me.