Oh god, she's wiping his eyes now with an actual freaking handkerchief, this is so embarrassing, this is so-

-well, it's nice actually. It's kind of nice. He lets her do it without protest, feeling only slightly comforted. It's nice, too, that she's not treating him like he's said something weird or shared too much (which he knows he has).

"Gabriel," he murmurs softly. "Gabe." He looks down, shame bubbling back up in him as he remembers the last couple times they spoke. "It's... it's complicated. I told him that I was... that I loved him, like a while ago, and I never thought he'd... I mean I always knew he cared about me but I never thought it was like that."

This sounds so insane out loud. He told he loved you and you ran away? Why would you do that? He looks up and away, staring into the woods, willing himself not to cry again.

"I don't know what to do," he murmurs. "He's mad and he has every right to be, I... I just don't know how to... I mean, you don't understand, he's so much... more than me, worth more, I mean, and like, what am I? Why does he... why me?"

He looks at her like he's actually asking, even though she has no way to answer.