Tigers & Devils (41 page)

I pulled him down onto the couch beside me and tried to hold him. He sat rigidly, like he was passively resisting a cop at an anti-globalisation rally. Eventually he sagged into me, and I held him tighter.

“I want to ask you something,” I said.

“What?” His voice was muffled against my T-shirt.

“Do you mind if I came to the match?”

He sat up and looked at me earnestly. “You would?”

“Of course I would! I wanted to tell you I was coming for ages, but I thought maybe you didn’t want me to.”

“Why wouldn’t I want you to?”

“Why didn’t you ask me?”

He groaned. “I thought we were going to get
better
at communicating.”

“Okay, so communicate. I’ll tell you why I didn’t, if you go first.”

“Chickenshit.” Declan grinned. “But okay. I want you to come to the game. But I thought maybe with me being such a stressed-out prick lately that it would be the last thing you would want to do. Plus the press attention will be huge. And they’ll probably focus on you as well if you came. I didn’t want to put pressure on you. Your turn.”

“Almost the same,” I replied. “I figured you had enough to deal with without me being there. Especially if the media got involved. I thought all of it would distract you and put you off your game.” I brushed my lips against his hairline. “I want to be there and support you.”

“This is why we should talk,” Dec said, gently rubbing his thumb against my cheek.

“We’re a team. The team of us.”

“You schmaltzy bastard.” I laughed. “I love it. And I love you.”

“Now who’s being schmaltzy?”

We kissed, and it was one of those moments where I felt perfectly assured that even though at times it seemed to be us against the world—
the team of us
—we would prevail.

“You’re going to need someone to show you the ropes though,” Dec said.

“The ropes?”

“Yeah. Someone who has been through all of this before and knows how to handle being the football wife.”

TIGERS AND DEVILS | 291

“You did
not
just call me a football wife,” I said, punching him in the gut. “Never do it again!”

He grabbed my fist, uncurled it, and fitted his own inside it. “You know what I mean.”

“So, someone to be my Yoda?”

“Yeah. Or, your Yoda someone should be. And I know who.”

“I’M so glad I have a fellow freak to hang out with,” Lisa declared, hugging me madly.

“Freak?” I echoed.

She kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t take it personally. But that’s what the WAGs think we are. In fact, you’ve probably taken my crown away.”

The WAGs were the Wives And Girlfriends. Bad acronym I know. And not very gender-inclusive, now that I was around.

“Oh,” I said, and then I asked in surprise, “Why would they think
you’re
a freak?”

Lisa stared at me, trying to figure out if I was being serious or just merely dumb.

“Uh, because I’m the only Asian in a swarm of Anglos? Any time I first introduce myself to one of them, they have trouble hiding the fact that they’re surprised I can speak English.”

Lisa sounded more Aussie than even Roger and could drink Abe under the table; I thought it was much more likely that the other girls were
intimidated
by her.

“They’re that cliquey?” I asked.

I must have looked worried, because Lisa immediately began to backtrack. “No, not really. Well, a little bit. They’re scared of difference. But then, so am I. I don’t feel comfortable around—”

“Normal people?”

Lisa laughed. “Normal? They’re hardly normal themselves.”

“Most people would think they were.”

“Let’s just say that we got on the wrong foot with each other. I was already nervous about dealing with them; they made a couple of stupid, but probably well-intentioned comments, and I got pissy.”

“That doesn’t sound like anything
I
would do at all.”

Lisa had seen me in social situations too many times to be able to treat that as a joke. “Don’t worry. Once they’ve associated you with me, you’ll be a social pariah. They’re probably expecting some guy who can discuss shoes and
Sex and the City
with them, not someone who wants to discuss the meta-existentialism of David Lynch.”

“Is
Sex and the City
still popular?”

“With them, yes. And
you
don’t know a wedge heel from a stiletto.”

292 | SEAN KENNEDY

“I know stilettos are good for stabbing people with.”

Lisa grinned. “Be sure to slip
that
into the conversation.”

We began crossing over from Harbour Esplanade towards the Dome, where a crowd was already milling for the game.

“We should have gone for a drink first,” I moaned.

“You can buy me a beer once we get inside.”

“Are you kidding? I have a mortgage. I can’t afford game-price beer.”

I wasn’t sure if I was being paranoid, but I felt like I was being recognised as Lisa and I walked through the throng of people. Not by everybody, but there seemed to be a few people who nudged each other and looked in our direction. I had been the subject of more articles (and the press liked to slip in a mention of me whenever Declan was being discussed) than any normal person would have liked. I had never in my life wanted to be a celebrity, much less a celebrity by default.

At the gate, Lisa showed our passes, and we were whisked through to the players’

box. There was already a small group of who I guess were the WAGs in there who stopped talking as soon as we entered. It was as comfortable as it sounds.

“Well, girls,” Lisa said cheerily, but with a tone of falseness that I had never heard in her before. “Here we are, the start of a new season.”

“And not all girls,” one woman said, pointedly staring at me.

“I know! There’s a penis amongst us!” Lisa said in mock horror, linking her arm through mine. “I’m sure you already know, but this is Simon.” She made sure that all attention was on her before unnecessarily adding, “Declan’s
partner
.”

That word and all its connotations, provoked a reaction of repressed smirks and sideways glances between the Aussie remake of the
Footballers’ Wives
.

“Howdy,” I said, sounding far more confident than I felt, although there was a part of me who was also enjoying it purely from a sadomasochistic viewpoint. There were some faint murmurs of greeting, and Lisa’s grip on me tightened.

“They’re being shy, Simon. Don’t worry, they’ll get used to you. Why don’t you grab us some seats, and I’ll get some beer.”

It was the equivalent of throwing me into the lion’s den. I squeezed past some of women in the second row and grabbed two at the end. I lowered the seat and sank into it, wishing it would swallow me whole. I looked up and offered a faint smile to the woman sitting closest to me; she just stared back.

“Are you enjoying the attention, then, are you?” she suddenly demanded, and once again, silence fell between everybody.

“What?” I asked, my tone edgier than I would have liked.

“You seem to like getting your face in the papers,” she accused me. I stared her down. “I don’t invite it, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“I bet you like it, though.”

TIGERS AND DEVILS | 293

“Well, no, I don’t.” And I didn’t know why I was attempting to justify myself to her.

She snorted. “You could’ve fooled me.”

“Are you playing nice, Rachel?”

I breathed with relief and hated myself for it when Lisa appeared at the end of the aisle with two plastic cups of beer.

“Just getting to know our new friend here,” Rachel lied through gritted teeth.

“It sounded to me like you were accusing him of being a fame whore,” Lisa said as she made her way around the other women in the seats, who were of course drinking in every word said between us.

“Not at all—”

Rachel screamed and leapt out of her seat as some beer sloshed out of one of the cups and landed on the front of her blouse.

“Sorry,” Lisa said, sounding anything but.

“You bitch!” Rachel spat, wiping at herself. “You did that deliberately!”

“Nah,” Lisa said dismissively, “I’m just clumsy. But I’ll make it up to you, and give you the ten bucks so you can go to Supré and get a replacement.”

If we had been in a film, someone would be snapping their fingers and drawling “oh no she di’n’t!”, but everybody stared at their feet so as not to provoke the beast. Rachel glared at Lisa one more time and then stormed off in the direction of the toilets. Or at least stormed off as best as she could while having to navigate between rows of crammed-in seats.

Lisa sat beside me and handed me one of the cups. “Waste of good beer,” she fumed.

I smushed my cup against hers in celebration. “Nah, I think it was sacrificed for a worthy cause.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

One of the girls in front of us turned around in a gesture of friendliness and said, “I can’t believe she called you an attention whore when she was the one who went to the Brownlow in a backless low-cut gown with a diamante thong!”

Lisa snorted. “Glass houses, Jackie. Your boobs fell out of your dress when they were serving dessert.”

Jackie smiled fondly, lost in memory. “Yeah, that was a
great
dress. So, Simon, what will you be wearing to the Brownlow if you and Declan are still together by then?”

Lisa and I both stared at her for her lack of tact, and I slowly said, “I don’t know. Clothes, I guess.”

Jackie laughed politely, but looked bewildered. “Sure.” She was glad that the whistle blew then and the players from Carlton began running onto the field so that she could start ignoring us with the best excuse in the world.

294 | SEAN KENNEDY

Lisa nudged my thigh with her own and smushed our cups together again. “You’re one of us now. There’s no escape.”

I gulped down my beer and hoped Rachel would fall down the loo so I wouldn’t have to see her again.

UNFORTUNATELY the toilet didn’t eat Rachel, but she seemed happy to pretend we didn’t exist from that moment on. The feeling was more than mutual. Some of the other girls thawed to us, but Lisa assured me that that was about as good as it was going to get so I didn’t expect anything more. It seemed like it was going to remain Lisa and me in one camp and everybody else in another. Unless, of course, someone deemed just as freaky as one of us infiltrated the group, hence supplanting my role as newbie and thereby doomed to come and increase the numbers of the dark side. It was only six minutes into the first quarter when all hell broke out on the field. Declan had just had a handball delivered to him, and he was making his way towards the Devils’ goal posts when he was tackled by Fraser Johnson of the opposing side. They went down in a flurry of legs and arms, tumbling over each other, and when they got to their feet Declan immediately shoved Johnson away from him. I watched the action play out on the big screen; Declan looked furious. Johnson was obviously mouthing off at him because Declan came in a second time, and Johnson immediately shoved him back. It was only mere seconds before both teams came pouring in to the centre of the field, anxious to start blueing with one another. The panicked referees threw themselves into the fray, calling for calm as Lisa and I grimaced while watching from above. She pointed out Abe pulling Declan back from another confrontation with Johnson; he was almost foaming at the mouth. Their coach called for a suspension of play and brought Declan back into their camp for a debrief. After a few heated moments it appeared he wasn’t getting anywhere, and the coach sent on another player to go back on instead. The whistle blew, and one of the referees threw the ball back into play.

“Shit,” Lisa groaned. “What do you think that was all about?”

I didn’t want to say, although I had my suspicions. Luckily Rachel was there to take it upon herself to clear it all up for us.

“Are you dense, or has that beer already gone to your head?” Rachel drawled.

“Johnson obviously slagged off the boy toy here.”

“I’m not this team’s fucking Yoko Ono, so can it,” I growled. Rachel snorted. I’m not even sure if she got the reference, although she got the intent.

“They’ll be fine,” Lisa said, although whether she was saying it to reassure me or herself I couldn’t tell.

“If he gets reported, he’ll have blown his chances for a Brownlow on his first game back,” Rachel said.

“Shut the fuck up, or I’ll shut you up,” Lisa threatened her.

TIGERS AND DEVILS | 295

“Hey!” I yelled. “We don’t need a brawl in here as well!”

Lisa rolled her eyes but patted me on the knee.

“Is it always this entertaining in here?” I murmured to her as we all drew our attention back to the game.

“Only if Rachel’s around.”

“Is she ever
not
around?” I asked hopefully.

Lisa shook her head.