[Just saying, Riley, he deserves some rude sometimes. He's very rude. But you do you, girl.]
[He does quiet down, though, listening carefully to what she tells him. Riley is like him, he knows. She worked very, very hard to be likeable, to be charming, to be perfect. The best. But back then, she didn't even think to try. Just like Haruno, she existed, and even that was some days too much.]
[He never had someone like that when he was a child. The closest he had was Mista, who just . . . decided they were friends, and that was that. But even that was after he'd taken deliberate action to make himself admirable. Nothing he did in front of any of them was lacking in calculation. He was always deliberate. Cairo, though, just decided. And Riley doesn't understand.]
[He's not sure he understands, either.]
I don't know. It's strange, isn't it? It's so different from the way we were. I never . . . acted, really, when I was younger. I never did anything. So seeing someone take action in that way, it's hard to understand what could motivate them. But me now, today, I think I would do something like that if what I was watching was wrong and I knew I could stop it. Or fix it.
[A beat.]
You really have to stop not talking to people for months when you're upset, you know. [Hypocrite.]
punches myself in the face for taking so long to reply to this honestly
[He does quiet down, though, listening carefully to what she tells him. Riley is like him, he knows. She worked very, very hard to be likeable, to be charming, to be perfect. The best. But back then, she didn't even think to try. Just like Haruno, she existed, and even that was some days too much.]
[He never had someone like that when he was a child. The closest he had was Mista, who just . . . decided they were friends, and that was that. But even that was after he'd taken deliberate action to make himself admirable. Nothing he did in front of any of them was lacking in calculation. He was always deliberate. Cairo, though, just decided. And Riley doesn't understand.]
[He's not sure he understands, either.]
I don't know. It's strange, isn't it? It's so different from the way we were. I never . . . acted, really, when I was younger. I never did anything. So seeing someone take action in that way, it's hard to understand what could motivate them. But me now, today, I think I would do something like that if what I was watching was wrong and I knew I could stop it. Or fix it.
[A beat.]
You really have to stop not talking to people for months when you're upset, you know. [Hypocrite.]