[When he talks about his family, about what makes them his, he uses small words, because they're too complicated to be bogged down by big ones. It's true of all of them: he loves them, but he hates them too. He wants to keep them safe, but he also wants desperately to hurt them before they can hurt him.]
[This is not a feeling he likes. He wants it to go away. But, because he can't make it go away and the avenue of hurting other people has been cut off now, it turns inward, to self-loathing.]
[His shoulders hunch. He does not cry because Cassel Sharpe doesn't cry, but his hands at Zane's elbow shake. He doesn't miss home or Lila or his mother but he does miss his grandad, who listened like this (but not like this because nobody's like Zane) and who made him feel, once or twice, nearly normal.]
spam
[This is not a feeling he likes. He wants it to go away. But, because he can't make it go away and the avenue of hurting other people has been cut off now, it turns inward, to self-loathing.]
[His shoulders hunch. He does not cry because Cassel Sharpe doesn't cry, but his hands at Zane's elbow shake. He doesn't miss home or Lila or his mother but he does miss his grandad, who listened like this (but not like this because nobody's like Zane) and who made him feel, once or twice, nearly normal.]