Louie recoiled briefly at the snapping, then stilled for a good long while. This was a perfect example of how being emotionally available absolutely sucked. It was just getting set up for pain, and it would be so easy to just shrug it off, pretend he didn't care. A few months ago, he would have.

A few months ago, he hadn't known Gobo.

Now, things were different. Both because of and independently of his new friend, he'd grown a lot. So he wasn't going to give in, not this time. He was going to dig his heels in and put up a fight. "It's not really in the past if it's still bothering you! You're still upset, and you don't have to deal with that alone!"