Ned POV
I finished my turn in the hot seat as did everyone but Eugene. I am a little nervous for this; Zach pulled me and Keith aside to tell us the bomb he was planning to drop. He didn't even know that the two of us had similar ideas.
This was it, Eugene was all hooked up and ready. He looked nervous but I have faith that this will turn out well in the end. We all care so much about him, how could this go wrong.
The questioning starts off the same for him as everyone; we get the jokes in and the stuff the audience would be interested in. Then Keith and Zach look at me and I know it's time. I myself was so lucky to find my wife- the love of my life- so early, and of course I want the same for all of my friends.
"Do you believe in true love?"
"No"
Well dang. I was kind of expecting that, but I had still hoped that his feelings weren't so strong. Wow. We'd already discussed the fact that he was the only child of divorce here, but I guess I just can't imagine what that did to him.
Keith moves on to talking about his hair. We've already discussed this but just hearing him say the reasoning behind it so robotically… It must be a really deeply ingrained ideal for him.
Zach takes a deep breath and asked the question we'd been waiting for.
"Eugene do you know how much the three of us care about you?"
I know he's not in touch with his emotions but we are. Surely he's understood just how deeply we all care for him and each other.
"... No"
Dang. He doesn't sound like he's lying.
"He's telling the truth"
For a moment I'm sent reeling. How can this be. He's my brother. I've really failed him. This shouldn't be such a surprise but wow that really hurts to hear. I can't even say anything to that.
"We've gotta be better about that…"
With those words we leave set to let Eugene finish his thoughts, and to let us collect ours. Keith is right we have to be better about that. Starting now.
