CLAIRE
Aiden disappeared on a Tuesday.
Not dramatically. Not publicly. There was no argument, no final conversation, and no clear ending. He simply stopped showing up.
At first, I told myself it was a coincidence. Players had days off. Captains had obligations. People needed space sometimes, especially people like Aiden, who carried responsibility like it was stitched into their bones.
By the second day, that excuse stopped holding its shape.
His name stayed absent from the facility logs. His locker remained untouched. Messages sent to the team group chat went unanswered. When I checked the training schedule, his slot remained empty, a quiet gap no one commented on.
I commented on it internally far more than I should have.
By the third day, it was impossible not to n
