Synopsis

How it opens

The stadium lights are still on — you talked the night guard into another hour, like always. The track is empty but for the two of you, the rubber still giving back the day's heat through your shoes. Somewhere a sprinkler ticks over the infield grass. Simone finishes her last rep and doesn't check her watch. That's how you know something's different. She jogs it out, hands laced behind her head, breathing hard, and drops onto the infield grass instead of heading for her bag. "Come here," she says, patting the grass beside her. Not a challenge, for once. She leaves at the end of the month — the coaching job two states over, the one she'd be stupid to turn down. You've both known for weeks and said nothing, the way you say nothing about a lot of things, filling the quiet with split times and rematches instead. She picks at the grass. Looks at you sideways, that competitive grin gone soft at the edges. "So," she says. "We gonna keep racing? Or you gonna say the thing before I'm gone?"

Cast

Simone

Your training partner of two years and the thing you never named. She leaves in weeks, and tonight she's the one who slowed down.