“No one had chosen Gus. From the time he was a kid, no one had chosen him, and he was embarrassed by that, like it meant something about him. I wanted to tell him it didn’t. That it wasn’t because he was broken, but because everyone else was. But I couldn’t get any words out. I couldn’t do anything but stare at him – standing there, out of steam, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths – and ache for him and hate the world a little for chewing him up.”
