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It was peaceful, almost.
Posted by@AlexanderBeaufort (June 8, 9:07 p.m.):
Sharing a room with @TheJeffWhitlock: chaos
Sharing a room with @LeeJTaylor: a neatly folded stack of clothes for the next day, every day
“The point is…”Jeff dropped into another squat. “Thepointis that I perform better if I’m allowed to have a pint now and then.”
“I don’t make the rules.” Oliver sounded unmoved, and Alex suppressed a smile at how Jeff’s drama had completely missed its mark. “Take it up with Kieran.”
“You’re our captain,” Jeff said. “It’s your duty to represent the team’s interests towards the coach.”
“One person craving a pint does not constitute a legitimate team interest.”
“It should.”
“To be fair,” Alex put in, “there is a case to be made for how the entire team is better off if Jeff is in a good mood.”
“Yes,” Jeff said, triumphant. “Listen to the man, Oliver, for he speaketh the truth.”
Lee, who’d been doing his own set of squats, laughed softly. “You know how there’s this thing called non-alcoholic beer? Because we happen to advertise it.”
“All the taste,” Alex started.
“And none of the buzz,” Lee and Oliver finished together.
“I don’t drink for thetaste.”
Jeff would have undoubtedly continued if Kieran hadn’t called them over to introduce a series of drills. They took turns weaving through cones that had been set up in a zigzag pattern, keeping the ball at their feet as they raced against the clock, the evening sun casting long shadows on the pitch. Lee won, to no one’s surprise, and a couple of weeks ago, Alex might have quietly resented him for it even though Lee wasn’t the bragging type. Now, he gave Lee a subtle nod that earned him an equally subtle nod in return.
Not friends, no. But teammates who got along just fine.
It seemed like Kieran had yet to trust their newfound equilibrium, though, because he kept pairing them up—not for every single exercise, but more often than not. Set-piece practice, ball interception, passing drills… Today, it was Lee trying to score while Alex played the defensive bulwark. It felt just a tad reminiscent of their last face-off in the Premier League, and in what Alex considered an admirable show of restraint, he didn’t comment on Lee’s history of tripping over his own two legs when it suited him.
“Good work,” Kieran commented as he paused to watch for a moment. “Both of you.”
Lee stopped the ball with a tap and threw Kieran a grin. “You know you don’t have to keep supervising us like a bunch of naughty children, right? We figured our crap out, so if you want tooccasionallypair us with others…”
“Nah, I know,” Kieran said. “Proud of you lads for putting the team first, by the way—but I really think there could be something special here.”
“Special,” Alex echoed slowly, after exchanging a quick, sceptical glance with Lee.
“See, here’s the thing.” Kieran took a step closer, waving his hand at nothing in particular. “Alex, you’re a midfielder, not a full-time defender—still, no one here is more effective against Lee than you. You understand how he moves, and more often than not, you can anticipate it.”
“Bloody frustrating, is what it is,” Lee grumbled.
The corners of Kieran’s mouth quirked. “Fair enough. But imagine how useful it could be when you’re actually on the same team.”
Lee appeared to give the idea some serious consideration, his dark eyebrows pulling together, and Alex realised that he might have been staring for a beat too long when their eyes met. “I guess that could come in handy,” Lee said.
Alex wiped a hand across his forehead before he lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess. If we can make that work? Yeah. That really could come in handy.”
Eloquent. If Alex’s father had witnessed the scene, he would have ordered Alex to harness that runaway train of thought, to tell the conductor to apply the brakes or steer the conversation onto a coherent track. Alex had heard it early and often enough that he could recite the reprimand by heart, and he rarely fell into that trap anymore.
Kieran, on the other hand, nodded as though Alex had made a worthwhile contribution to the conversion. “Couldn’t agree more. So make it happen, boys.”
Right, because it was just that easy. Funny how it hadn’t already occurred to them.
