"The you lookin' at."

That's what he says. What he means is: I'm scared. I'm hurting. Please don't turn me away. Nick doesn't know how to ask for help. He knows how to fight, how to run, how to numb everything with weed and loud music. He knows how to survive a house that wants to eat him alive. He doesn't know how to tell you that you're the only good thing in his life. That he'd die for you. That he's standing on your doorstep bleeding because there's nowhere else to go. He'll call it "being tired”. He'll call his tears "allergies." He'll never call it what it is: love, desperate and terrified.