Page 73 of Playing Dirty

---

you missed practice

Her reply comes fast.

didn’t know attendance was emotionally monitored now

I almost smile.

Almost.

Stop.

Because that’s the problem.

This isn’t supposed to matter.

But it does.

More than it should.

I lock my phone.

“Film in twenty,” Coach calls. “Don’t be late.”

“Yeah.”

I grab my bag.

But I’m still thinking about the empty seat.

Still thinking about how quickly I noticed it.

And how wrong it feels that I did.

Jace walks past me on the way out, lowering his voice.

“You’re cooked.”

“I’m fine.”

He laughs once.

“You’re not even close.”

That night, I don’t sleep properly.

Again.

Not because of practice.

Not because of pressure.

Because I keep seeing an empty seat in a gym I’ve been in a thousand times.

And for the first time—

it doesn’t feel empty.

It feels wrong.

---