Clementine was ready for him to just go away. Lots of people did, she was used to it by now. Lots of time it wasn't there fault, but it still hurt. But he didn't, and suddenly felt bad at the idea maybe bad things were happening to him too. If she'd known, she never would've said anything like that to him at all.

"I didn't know. Are you okay?" she said, immediately concerned. She didn't care if he made her sad, if he was going through bad things, that was a reason to st "I've done bad things too but staying away didn't make it any better."

She'd been staying away a whole lot - not physically, but emotionally - and it only made it worse. She knew that, as much as she didn't know how to make it better.