TJ had stood in the back, listening. He remembered the year that followed when this happened in their world, still at school at GW. The demonstrations had started on campus shortly after he gave up and left. But, he was too high at the time to really care much about what was happening. He'd watched on that day with the rest of the world, then gone to get high because it was all too much. Once the smoke cleared on the horizon, when most of his life at the moment had been on campus, it was easy to forget and try to get lost in the parties and drugs and sex, all the things they'd excused as life-affirming, but were really an escape from everything.
And he knew he couldn't help these people. Even if he had wanted to, he wasn't that guy. He wasn't the guy who helped or thought of others. He wasn't the guy who did anything unless it was to garner his parents' approval or to piss them off. Travis hadn't been wrong, even if TJ wouldn't admit it. The idea of being someone on his own, not having to answer to those expectations was a dream. But, not one he had ever been able to try for.
Only, now, he might have that chance.
If he was strong enough to take it.
He didn't really give a damn what these people thought of him. He didn't owe them anything and he hadn't volunteered to join up with them in the first place. The only ones he felt enough remorse at leaving behind that it might change his mind, were Doug and Nana. No matter what he did, his parents would find fault. But, he'd never not had contact with his brother. Even when he was avoiding his parents, he'd never ignored Doug's calls. And Nana wouldn't understand, period. She still believed he could get better with his family easier than without.
For Doug, he might stay. Nana might guilt him into it.
But, TJ's natural impulsiveness and tendency toward rash actions in his personal life and he was speaking up before he had a chance to stop himself.
"I'd like to go. I'll take the out and leave now."