"It is. I promise," he repeats. Still keeping his distance. Still keeping his hands firmly in his pockets.
The fact that he's answering at all is likely progress of a sort, but it doesn't do much to make him feel any better. The way he had backed up, the way he had squeezed his eyes shut and waited, they make Martin's stomach clench uncomfortably. He's seen people like that before and he's even been one of them once. Only very briefly thankfully. He was too easygoing, too normal, too popular to attract much of the wrong sort of attention at school. He ended fights between people, not started them. It seemed though that there were always some people who were simply cruel. They didn't need a reason, they just were. There was no other explanation.
"I can show you where it is. And I also promise not to hit you." Martin does his best to look as trustworthy and respectable as possible, feeling very mature. "I am not a bully."
no subject
The fact that he's answering at all is likely progress of a sort, but it doesn't do much to make him feel any better. The way he had backed up, the way he had squeezed his eyes shut and waited, they make Martin's stomach clench uncomfortably. He's seen people like that before and he's even been one of them once. Only very briefly thankfully. He was too easygoing, too normal, too popular to attract much of the wrong sort of attention at school. He ended fights between people, not started them. It seemed though that there were always some people who were simply cruel. They didn't need a reason, they just were. There was no other explanation.
"I can show you where it is. And I also promise not to hit you." Martin does his best to look as trustworthy and respectable as possible, feeling very mature. "I am not a bully."