"I'm sorry, Joel."

The worlds lingered in the air, filling the space between us. He looked up, his eyes gleaming in the artificial glow of the kitchen light. I couldn't tell what he was thinking; in a millisecond, more emotions played across his face than those in the entire time I had known him. Eventually, he sighed.

"You were stupid last night, Asa," he said, flipping the cover of his puzzle book, pushing it into the middle of the table.

"I'm sorry," I said repeated. A lump welled in my throat, the overwhelming sensation of letting him down filling me. "I shouldn't have called you, I should have-"

"Don't be...