Bloodsport

chapter 13

When they’d finally settled down, Lee was nice enough to hand Liam a compliment. “She’s pretty, though,” he said.

Liam looked almost like he was blushing. “I know.”

“Careful, Li,” Harry heard Louis say teasingly from the other side of the room. Harry watched him remove his shirt, and forced his eyes away. “You already seem whipped. If you don’t watch out, she’ll have you on a leash.”

Harry scoffed at the poor joke, and Liam seemed to roll his eyes. He said, “I don’t really care to be honest.”

It was very sweet, but then Stan laughed loudly. “She’s that good in bed, yeah?”

“Hey,” Harry barked. “That’s rude.” He didn’t like that sort of talk, and he was the captain, supposed to preserve a respectful atmosphere. He slid his shinpads on where he sat, throwing Stan an unimpressed glance.

Stan only snickered at his reprimand, and Lee began pushing at Harry’s shoulder. “Oi, captain. So serious, eh.”

“He says because he hasn’t gotten a good lay in months.” Stan was once again bursting out in laughter. The guy seemed to always have something to say, very much like Louis. Harry wasn’t surprised the two of them were friends. Neither of them seemed to take critique seriously.

“Tell us, Harry,” said Lee, still nudging his shoulder and raising his brows suggestively. He was always looking for a bit of fun and gossip, his dark brown eyes glittering with mischief and delight. “When was the last time you pulled?”

It wasn’t a question he wanted. Of course, it wasn’t.

He looked down at the floor, shaking his head. “That’s none of your business.”

First of all, he was gay and closeted. Secondly, he naturally couldn’t tell them about Louis. He still had no clue what Louis’ thoughts on his sexuality were, but it was clearly nothing he talked about. Harry wasn’t very interested in sharing such a thing, either. He grabbed his training jersey and pulled it on, hoping they would let it go.

Jonny joined the fray. “Please… It’s just us lads,” he grinned invitingly. He placed a hand on his arm.

“I said,” Harry repeated slowly, voice serious, shrugging the hand off, “it’s none of your business.”

“Don’t be such a puss, Harry.” Stan. Again. Harry wasn’t normally the type to fall for peer pressure, but at that moment, he just wanted to make them shut their faces and stop asking questions about his sex life.

“Come on!” they all chanted.

“Fine!” he finally burst. If he said something, maybe they’d all just shut up. “Last week,” he announced. “And it was a fucking good shag as well.”

He didn’t mean to look at Louis. Cross his heart and hope to die. Still, his eyes flew across the room, and then he was met by Louis’ gaze. Blue, and utterly surprised. They both held the stare for a long second before their teammates began to tug at Harry’s shirt, jumping around him as if to celebrate.

“Get your arses to practice,” Louis yelled, voice fierce and loud. “We’ve got drills to run!”

The boys began grumbling and throwing Louis disappointed glares at that, but they all obeyed and started heading out to the pitch. Harry was indeed appeased by Louis’ swift switch of conversation, but he couldn’t help feeling anxious about what he had just said. He hoped Louis thought nothing of it. He didn’t, right?

As the team moved towards the pitch, he caught up to Louis, who was the last of the boys out of the locker room.

“You’re not a good lay,” he declared to him quietly. It was just something he had said to get the lads off his back. Clearly.