[Being unfeeling is something he's been moving toward. When the world repeatedly tries to hurt you, one sadly natural response is to attempt to make yourself unable to feel the pain. Retreat. Hide. You can't feel bad if you don't feel at all. The problem with that, of course, is that is sacrifices the good.

[But he's not there. Not quite.

[It's an unconscious gesture, his hand reaching up, fingers twisting into his hair. Here, his eyes do cast down a bit.] I'm out of the house. Away from him. We don't associate.

[That's the good part. He doesn't have to worry about that man anymore. It hadn't happened on the terms he had wanted, though.]

Graduated. Should be in college. Circumstances prevented it. [He will not get into how that had fallen apart. He shouldn't even have been in this city anymore. He'd been supposed to go away to school . . .] I'm looking after myself.

[It feels like too much about himself, and he mentions something on his own. An odd, banal non-sequitor, but he is curious.] You sit strangely now.