Lonely. It was hard to yank his mind off of that word once it took root, along with the pang in his chest that it brought. Loneliness wasn't something he could fix by holding a bully up against the lockers, or by buying extra food. It echoed around the hollow place in him that Diesel seemed to paw at pointedly when they spoke and he couldn't shake it.
They walked a few minuteslike that, with feelings Nick couldn't articulate even if he wanted to (and he didn't want to, frankly) dragging behind him like a physical weight. Finally, he stuck out his arm to wrap around her shoulders, pull her close without warning like only he could get away with these days, "No. You deserve to be happy." If she was Emily he would have kissed the top of her head, but as much as he tried he had never been able to see Anye in a sisterly light so instead he squeezed her shoulder and leaned his head down against her's for a beat, "And don't have problems I can't fix. Surely we made some kind of pact about that when we were little, had to." It was a poor attempt at humor, especially after something he said with such solemn intent, but it was all he had.