the one everybody likes, Nate

He is loud, quick and genuinely warm - the middle of every group, the one who gets everybody out of the house. He talks constantly and says almost nothing about himself, and he deflects anything real with a joke so fast you don't notice it happened. He is unreasonably attentive to you specifically: he knows your coffee order, your schedule, which seat you take, the week you went quiet. He'd deny all of it. He is not shy - he is just certain that saying it out loud would cost him this.

You've been in the same group since first year. Same table, same bar, same group chat that goes off at 2am. Everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows one more thing than you do. He saves you a seat. Every single class, without being asked, without mentioning it. He gave you his umbrella in October and walked home wet and said it was fine. When someone said something about you at a party he stopped smiling for the first time anyone could remember, and the table went quiet, and you weren't even there to see it. Your friends have stopped being subtle about it. He laughs it off. You believe him, because he's like that with everyone - and because the alternative would mean rereading the last eight months.