_Theo’s POV_
Practice ended late, and Nathan was already halfway out of the locker room before most of us had finished unlacing.
That was becoming normal. Not in a good way.
I caught him near the door, bag over one shoulder, phone in his hand like he was already somewhere else.
“You’re leaving fast,” I said.
“I’ve got things to handle.”
“You always have things to handle lately.”
Nathan looked at me for a second, the same closed-off expression he’d been wearing for days. “I’m fine, Theo.”
“I didn’t ask if you were fine.”
He exhaled through his nose, not quite impatient, not quite present. “I’ll text you later.”
Then he was gone, out into the corridor before I could push harder. I stood there with my gloves in one hand and the feeling that I’d been talking to a version of him that
