Merry

She was hoping to have this resolved by Christmas, she said, like he's something that needs to be dealt with instead of something else. Tom doesn't like to have anyone looking at him like that, least of all Dorcas.

If he could, he would lock away the fractures in his face somewhere that she couldn't find them, even when he laid them at her feet like always. All Tom needed to be real were for Dorcas to stay and for Dorcas to not do it again, but she always leaves and always does it again. Tom knows she thinks he's awful, he got that part, but when she balls him up and throws him out, he doesn't—… If he can't make her—then Tom's going to have to do something; he can't keep fracturing, or letting her see it, or letting her not care whether he is or isn't, so long as she can resolve him, dear God.

Tom loathes holidays. They make him feel like he's supposed to act like a person, or something.