[Just that, another quiet noise of assent; he's thinking.]
He's lonely. Or he was. It's like . . . mm, if a child isn't picked up when it cries, after a while, it assumes it won't be, no matter what, so it stops crying. What's the point? Someone who's alone for so long, they stop reaching for people because they don't think they'll ever touch them. What's the point?
And then, suddenly, someone picks up this child, or stands with this person who's alone, and it's overwhelming and terrifying and amazing. But they don't know how to keep this new thing safe. So they hang onto it with both hands, and they make sure nothing about the situation changes, because they don't know how it got to be that they weren't alone, and the only way to keep from being alone again is to make sure everything stays the same. Just in case.
Maybe he feels like he doesn't deserve you.
[Contemplatively, he takes a bite of pudding.]
Plenty of people don't. You're better than the vast majority of people I've met in my life. But he deserves you, and you deserve him. That's just how it is.
action;
[Just that, another quiet noise of assent; he's thinking.]
He's lonely. Or he was. It's like . . . mm, if a child isn't picked up when it cries, after a while, it assumes it won't be, no matter what, so it stops crying. What's the point? Someone who's alone for so long, they stop reaching for people because they don't think they'll ever touch them. What's the point?
And then, suddenly, someone picks up this child, or stands with this person who's alone, and it's overwhelming and terrifying and amazing. But they don't know how to keep this new thing safe. So they hang onto it with both hands, and they make sure nothing about the situation changes, because they don't know how it got to be that they weren't alone, and the only way to keep from being alone again is to make sure everything stays the same. Just in case.
Maybe he feels like he doesn't deserve you.
[Contemplatively, he takes a bite of pudding.]
Plenty of people don't. You're better than the vast majority of people I've met in my life. But he deserves you, and you deserve him. That's just how it is.