"Because we're fucked up," he says, and he's breathing a little hard, and there are a whole host of reasons why this might be. "And we don't get to do normal shit like normal people. I don't fucking know."

He barks a laugh, looks away again, at a passing car, at the changing streetlights in the distance, at distant steel towers. Can't we just make believe. Can't we say that none of it matters.

"Okay." He holds out his hand, mouth twisting into something vaguely like a smile. "C'mon. Promise, no more walls. Let's pretend we're normal. We gotta be able to do that."