"Before you and Ben tied the noose around your necks, we were happy!"

"He was never happy!" Michael exploded, all the locked up energy in his body rising to a head. "He was never happy! He pretended to be happy because he thought that was what you wanted! And for five years he just, went along with it while you… fucked everything in sight, and kicked him out, and pushed him away, and kept secrets and told lies…!" The energy seemed to catch up with itself as Michael trailed off, looking suddenly more tired than angry. His eyes rested just to the right of Brian's right shoulder. He was quiet for a moment, and, surprisingly, so was Brian. Michael sighed heavily. "I'm sorry that you're unhappy, I really am. I love you. But… he deserves a shot. He deserves a chance at what he wants. And he's never going to get it with you. The worst part is, it's not that you can't give it to him, or that you don't know how, or even, I think, that you don't want to. You just won't. Out of… spite, almost. Out of some cruel sense of irony. It's shitty, Brian, what you've been doing to him."

"I haven't done a goddamned thing, I told him everything up front!"

"It's too much, Brian! Look, maybe if you'd done it for a few months, or even a year, but fuck, Brian, five years! You think I ask too much! It's too much! It's too long. It's too long to ask him to keep still, to keep his expectations locked up, silent in his chest. The pressure cooker's gonna blow eventually. If you ask me, you got off easy. Now you can go do what you want. And so can he."