[Gary had said that, it's true. Dave still remembers how elated he'd been then. How those were the words he'd wanted to hear most of all, some reaffirmation that he wasn't in the wrong so that he didn't have to keep replaying those events in his mind at night, unable to sleep from the guilt of casting someone out on the streets when to do so was to put them in harm's way.

Dave slept a lot better since then, but still there was a part of him that thought that Gary only said those those words because he didn't really know what happened. He hadn't full understood the circumstances surrounding Dave's severance of that friendship because Dave purposefully didn't touch on all of the circumstances, because Dave had framed it in a way that left out certain parts. He hadn't physically seen, with his own two eyes, the way hateful way in which Dave had treated Pokey; and once he saw those things, he would surely be disgusted.

But... he isn't?]

I...

[Those aren't fears that he can give voice to, so instead he fishes through his mind for some adequate response, trying to not let Gary's laughter get to him even as his face starts to flush in embarrassment.]

Look, your power threw me off, alright?! Not like it's every day you suddenly find yourself getting tossed headfirst back into an old memory you hadn't even thought about in ages.