❝In which two people call up a helpline in order to find someone just as broken as they are. ❞
"Does...does it bother you that my dad's in prison for murder?"
"Well, judging by the fact that I moved away from America to get away from the memory of a...
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"Do you think that I talk too much?"
"Um...in all honesty, I've only had one conversation with you so I can't really-"
"That's why I want your opinion. I want an opinion from someone who's fresh, who doesn't really know me well enough to sugarcoat the answer. I know for a fact that if I asked someone close to me that they wouldn't give me a straight answer."
"What...what do you mean?"
"They wouldn't tell me the truth. Or at least, not the full truth. They would completely sugarcoat it, trying not to hurt me by not saying what they really think."
"And that's a bad thing?"
"Of course it is. How am I supposed to get an honest opinion if all they ever do is half lie to me?"
"They're just trying to be nice."
"Yeah, well, sometimes I really wish they weren't so nice. How the hell am I supposed to tell them how I really feel when all they are is nice?"
"I...I don't think I quite understand what you're trying to say."
"I...I can't express my honest opinion to their faces and they can't do it to mine. We're all so caught up in being nice that we forget that a bit of honest criticism of faults is good for us too. We can't...we can't speak the words that we want to say for fear of hurting the other person and that...that's not right. We should be able to express our opinions without worrying what the other person has to say about it."
