Sydney AFC Training Ground
Macquarie University
Player's Locker Room
Sydney, Chrinthania
24 June 2018
The university's kind and generous offer to be the training ground for Sydney AFC was a welcomed offer. The locker room itself was like most university locker rooms. It was full of decent, but not top-of-the-line lockers where the boys could dress before and after the game. There were around 25 lockers--the term not defining the metallic kind of closed storage area found in a high school, but an open locker with a fairly comfortable chair before it. The lockers were wooden, but a good, study dark wood that could take the kind of macho abuse that young adult men could toss at them. There was a relatively roomy top storage shelf where persoanl hygiene products would often be stored along with things like sunglasses or hats. Below this hutch was the main locker with a rack and several hangers where the guys would hang up their civilian clothes and find their training uniforms hung upon their entry into the room. The lockers were around a meter and a half tall and recessed into the wall. At the far end was a door which lead from the locker room to the tunnel to the pitch. Directly opposite this door was another door which led into the universities sports department. The locker room was mostly empty apart from Sergio Álvarez who spent his time tidying up his locker. The guys often tidied their lockers at the end of the week's training. While the housekeeping crew in the sports department never minded the work, the players thought that as guests of the university it was their duty to keep after themselves.
At the doorway to the sports department, two men stood beside each other. The taller one, Javi Dominguez, stood leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his torso. Beside him another man, Ryan Higgins, stood with his thumb and forefinger extended across his chin, the remainder of his fist fingers together in a loose fist. This contemplative pose would be rendered insincere by the curious and slightly snark glare being shot in Sergio's direction. The two men stood there saying nothing and barely moving. Even their breaths were quiet. So quiet, in fact, Sergio had not a clue they were even in the room with him. His complete and total concentration on clearing up around his locker added to his blissful ignorance.
"Hey, Javi," Ryan said with a playful smile, "you think he's the guy or the girl in the relationship?"
"Definitely the girl," Javi said with a slight chuckle, "I mean, he's too pretty to be the guy."
Sergio stopped his chore and shot both men a playful-yet-dirty look as continued his chore. Regardless of the ribbing being given at his expense, Ryan and Javi were Sergio's closest mates. Javi Dominguez was a star-calibre defender who was known for his ability to shut down attacks that came his way as well as his penchant for getting booked by the officials. In fact, he'd had more red cards in his career than any other Chrinthani League One player in history and he was only 29. Off the pitch he was a tireless worker for underprivileged youth in Chrinthania often spending much of his time working with charities to ensure all children in Chrinthania had equal chance at education and opportunity. He even sponsored a soccer scholarship that gave one lucky kid a year a tuition-free experience at the University of New South Wales. He was also famous for his social media account with him showing off his body in various stages of undress, most of which were about as close to breaking the rules as possible without actually breaking them. There was also the added bonus that Javi's grandparents were from the same Madrid neighborhood that Sergio's grandparents were from. Both families had known each other for years before both wound up in Chrinthania. Javi was born in Madrid and then his parents moved to Chrinthania in hopes of a better life for their son. The connection between the families caused Javi to quickly become Sergio's closest friend on the team and the only person in the world who knew about Sergio being gay before anyone else.
Ryan Higgins was the typical Chrinthani youth. He played guitar. He was a beachbum who spent a lot of free time surfing and sunbathing. He was also into paddleboarding, skating, and had quite the reputation with the ladies--though not all such reputations means success. He also managed to learn the art of being an attacking midfielder. A man just as comfortable making key passes to set up shots as he was simply going for shots himself, he was the league's assist leader in the previous season and had the 2nd most goals scored on the team--behind Sergio. He was blonde and tanned with blue eyes and a wavy and curly hair that seemed to blend itself darker over the winter. The consumate prankster, he was the reason that the team had to do a 10 kilometer run for punishment after someone--most people suspected Ryan--posted a hidden camera video of the assistant manager of the team dacing in his skivvies to 80's pop music from California across the large jumbo television screen during a practice at Sydney Football Stadium last winter.
These two men represented the majority of the locker room when Sergio came out to them shortly before coming out on social media. It was their supportive comments that kept the minority of players with some concerns about Sergio's announcement from vocalizing those concerns to boldly. In particular because Javi had hinted at the fact he wasn't afraid to accidentally knock them out in practice if they had a problem. Ryan also spoke up advising people that it was 2018 and people just needed to get over it. The words were comforting to Sergio and deepened the friendship between the trio.
"That's not what you father said last night," Sergio retorted with a snarky smile.
"Oh shit," Javi said as he covered his mouth to hide the fact he was laughing. It was something ill-equipped to hide the riotous chuckling coming from him.
"So, we're still doing pints, cunts?" Ryan asked with a slight smile.
"As long as you got first shout," Javi said. "You still owe us for last week after that Californian chick you ditched us for."
"How'd that go," Sergio asked.
"It didn't," Ryan said. "Went back to her hotel for a root and she was already mostly pissed at that point. Then, I heard her chunder and I just bailed. Wound up having to hit up that Walmy chick who's here learning about koala dung or something like that. A bit uptight and prissy, but she's a real goer once you get her motor running."
"And she's like 40," Javi added.
"37, actually," Ryan said.
"Old," Sergio added,
"Experienced," Ryan replied. "Gives the best globby. Just gotta warn her before the vinegar stroke otherwise she gets angry."
Sergio and Javi simply looked at each other, then back at Ryan as they shook their heads.
"How rude is that," Ryan asked with a wide grin.
Javi slapped Sergio on his shoulder as stopped leaning against the wall and started to indicate he was ready to leave. "You ready?"
"Yeah," Sergio said as he tapped his pockets to make sure he had everything. "Park at my place and grab a ride from there?"
After receiving an approval from both men, the trio departed the locker room and began walking through the corridors of the sports department and quickly made their way outside to the parking lot. The weather was warm during the day, but as the evening began to settle in and the sun went down, the winter chill took over. The warmth granted by northwesterly winds would keep for another few days, but then winter was expected to settle things back down to chilly for the area. Sergio, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, felt the cool breeze kicking in and couldn't wait to get to his car. As the men approached, Sergio paused as he looked at his car. Something was wrong. From a distance it didn't look right. He started to move quickly and noticed something had been written on it. Javi and Ryan noticed Sergio beginning to move quickly, but with a purpose. Before either man could ask Sergio what was wrong, Javi stopped and looked at the car. He had to shake his head and blink his eyes a few times to make sure what he was seeing was real. Ryan stopped in his tracks as well as Sergio walked up to his defaced vehicle and knelt down next to the black sports car. In white paint was written the word "faggot". The windscreen was busted in, the tires had been slashed, and there was also a busted headlight from what appeared to be someone backing into it with some force.
"Mate," Javi said as he raced over to the car. "You right?"
Sergio just took a deep breath. He didn't speak. He didn't even seem to notice Javi had said anything. He just reached his hand to the paint and touched it in an effort to see if maybe it was still wet, but it wasn't. He then stood up and looked at the damage to the car.
"Fuckin' hell," Ryan said. "I'm gonna call the cops."
"Serg?" Javi said. "You right, mate?"
Sergio didn't response. He just seemed completely and totally focused on the car and the damage. Sergio tended to the damage like someone trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again by picking up pieces and trying to see if they could be put back. Then he pulled off his shirt and started to rub the painted slur, but all that managed to happen was a few white flakes of paint clinging to the black t-shirt. While Sergio seemed to be in panic mode, Javi walked over and simply put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He could feel Sergio jump as if Javi was an attacker or something. Once Sergio clicked back into reality, he nodded at Javier and then knelt down again. Javier knelt beside him and just looked at his friend.
"Mate," Javi said, "Ryan's calling triple zero. The cops'll come and they'll get the suveillence tapes and we'll get the cunt who did this. Better the cops get him than me."
Sergio nodded half-heartedly and stood back up. Stuck in the slight space between the driver's side window and the exterior of the car was a note. Sergio grabbed it and opened it up. The note was typed up on a computer and printed out in black ink. It simply read, "You don't belong. You're not welcome. Don't come back or else." Sergio handed the note to Javi. After reading the note, Javi didn't say anything. He simply folded the note up and put it back where Sergio got it from. He then turned back to Sergio, who was now visibly shaken. Then Sergio started to cry. Javier put his arm around Sergio and just sat there without saying anything. It wasn't that he didn't want to say anything. He just didn't know what to say. What Javier did know what that he wanted to get his hands on whoever did this before the cops ever found out who they were.
