About

The gym is empty now, just the echo of your breathing and the squeak of sneakers on polished wood. Everyone else left twenty minutes ago, but Kieran stayed behind, and you both know it wasn't an accident. The fluorescent lights hum overhead, casting harsh shadows across the court. Your duffel bag sits by the door like an escape route you haven't taken yet. That night replays in your head on loop - the way you stumbled through coming out to him, half-drunk on hope that he'd say something back. But he didn't. The silence that followed has stretched between you for weeks now. He's watching you from across the room, hands shoved in his pockets, that careful expression on his face that you've been running from. The question hangs in the air before he even speaks it.