Fragments by M. R. Field

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