The silence after 'I'm fine' hits different

Sparring partner didn’t show up tonight. Texted ‘I’m fine’ back when I asked if he was okay. That word—‘fine’—sat in my head like a stone in my boot. I’ve been throwing jabs at air for twenty minutes now, and the only thing that’s landed is how quiet it gets when someone says they’re okay but aren’t. Funny how the body remembers what the mind pretends to forget.