"I don't think you settled for me. Hartley, I'm hot and we get on, what more do people want from love? It just feels weird. This whole thing." Wait, that came out badly. See, this was why he never talked about love, it always came out wrong. He just wasn't used to this. "Not bad weird, just weird. I'm not used to it. Love, I mean."

Axel pulled himself upright and decided to just lay his cards on the table. "I know it makes me a petty asshole but I felt upset over everything and I don't know why. Probably some childish reason so I went to a dealer and he gave me his new product. Vertigo. And I stood there in the hall with all these kids, my age or younger, and I just knew I was one injection away from being like them. So I didn't take it but I felt so bad that I almost did that I didn't want to go home and face you." And now here he was doing it anyway and it sucked.