#clematis has trust issues...

He really shouldn’t have trusted them about that. At this rate, Clem knew that he was going to be showing up at an empty house, but he still hoped. He really shouldn’t have hoped. (34)

Of course, his first betrayal was when some people he barely knew invited him over for a party. It’d be rude to refuse, even though it was also his birthday that day, but they all looked at him so expectantly. “Being rude was ruder than being betrayed,” he thought, as he sat on the step of some stranger’s house. (59)