Holly didn't believe in proving anything. She was who she was. She'd been who she was from nine, and nine stood on the sidewalk under the gutter of street lights and solicited with unwavering conviction that this? Was the way life worked. The family was added extra and no, she didn't take it for granted. Hello, Holly didn't take anything for granted. But this? Eddie? There was an expectation he knew exactly what he was getting. Holly didn't waver on any of her people. They had to put up or shut up.
"You're not a legend," she said now, swinging both feet because she liked it. "You're a person, and the thrills? Are a way of avoiding whatever's going on. You should want more. We should all want more. That's part of living, Eddie." She didn't ask why he hadn't come up for air, or why the last time she'd seen Steph was months and months and months ago. It just was, sometimes? The family had its own crap to process.
"Don't bury yourself," she said now, wise and young and infallible.