#quote!

"You want to know what I really think? I think you're a pathetic little man who joined the lab because he was sick and had nothing to lose, and now he's so far down the rabbit hole of his own bad decisions that he can't even see the light anymore. I think you look at me and see what you could have been. Someone who fought back. Someone who escaped. And it makes you so fucking jealous that you can't sleep at night."

I don’t know who I am without someone to validate me. That is the truth, the ugly, pathetic truth. I define myself through others, through their approval, their affection, their need for me. Without that, I am nothing. An empty shell, waiting to be filled.

What did I do wrong? The question circles in my head, endless and unanswerable. Was I too forward? Too desperate? Too needy? Did I push him away with my intensity, my need for reassurance, my pathetic longing for someone to stay?