"You can be surrounded by a literal sea of people and still be lonely. If you can't or don't connect with someone, you can be lonely as hell even when talking to other people. You're not physically alone in those moments, but mentally? You can be on another planet even when you're trying to sit beside someone."

Toby frowns sympathetically at Nike. This isn't something that's easily explained, but he's trying. It's something he knows so intimately that it shouldn't be difficult to explain, but her understanding is so different from his own. It's almost like trying to explain the concept of air to someone who's never had to breathe before.

"People can ache about a lot of things. If you get in your own head about something, convince yourself that it's true when it's not, you can distance yourself from others without trying." His lips twitch into a dark imitation of a smirk briefly. "That's not even accounting for others ostracizing you over a perceived slight, and that happens far more often than it should these days."