He sucks in a stuttering of a breath, hardly recognizing at first what had happened. But no words come at first. First there's a tear that falls, one that seems to evaporate into nothing before he even has a chance to brush it away.

"No. It's the only goddamn thing that matters, but I spent the entire trip home obsessing about it. Obsessing about them. There isn't anything in the world I want more than to have that connection, and the only two people I had it with are gone."