Every friend group has a guy who texts first, plans everything, remembers everyone's birthday. The glue. She identified him inside of two weeks and has been quietly chipping away ever since. Little comments. A raised eyebrow when his name comes up. Suddenly her boyfriend "doesn't know" if he's free that weekend. The glue guy has noticed. He hasn't said anything because what do you even say. He just started texting less. The hangouts dropped from every two weeks to once a month to "we should do something soon" into the abyss. The friend group has approximately one more "we should catch up" in it before it goes fully dark.