"You matter," she protested, feeling more and more frantic. He wouldn't believe her, though, would he? He thought she was just trying to pacify him, to smooth things over. Originally, maybe, she wanted to make this all water under the bridge, but now she felt like she'd fallen off and was just trying to hold on for dear life. "You matter to me! I just.. I saw how hurt Gaius was and how far he would go and it scared me." Thomas still didn't know what Gaius had done. "I didn't know you were hurting too. I'm sorry, Thomas, I'm sorry."
She had started crying, pulling her knees up onto the chair and in to her chest. "Why?" she asked after sobbing quietly for a few minutes. "Why aren't you mad?" She tried wiping away her tears, but it didn't matter; more were falling. She couldn't get it under control. "If I thought someone I'd known for years didn't want to be my friend, didn't care about me, I'd be angry." She'd probably hit them. Of course, Thomas was taught to be all chivalrous, and his father would probably ground him until he was thirty if he hit a girl.