"Three days," he said quietly, shaking his head. "I warned you, Aspen. I warned you. What are you gonna do now, huh?"
"You realize you've married one of your machines, right, Aspen? I warned you about this. You're going to get hurt; he can't love you."
"He wasn't raised to feel love as a valid emotion. He was never loved. It's like if someone asked you to feel Elypto. How would you even begin?"
"You don't understand," he said with a sigh. "It's like trying to describe a completely new primary color. He can't handle it."
"I don't know, okay? I don't know what I'm doing, Eli. Not one thing! It's been very, very hard and I just wish I knew what I was doing but I don't and yet here I am just going with it. I will continue to do so because I don't know any other way."
"I gave you another way, Aspen! I told you that if you had any feelings that you needed to squash them. Now you're feeling rejected and he's probably really confused, and I have to deal with it."
"Well neither way would have been happy for me. I just.." she sighed, her brows furrowing and her shoulders slumping. "I shouldn't have been so selfish."
"No, you shouldn't have," Eli agreed, his eyes glittering dangerously. "And! And, not only that, but you kept it from me. You lied."
“Not how things should work? Aspen, you’ve been here a week. You don’t get to waltz in his, *squee!* everything up, and then start making demands.”
“I’m disappointed in you,” he said harshly. “You were incredibly selfish. Go back to bed with August. You’ve screwed him up now too.”
She tried to look angry, but mostly looked like she were about to cry. "I should just go back to where I came from.."
“Yeah, maybe you should,” he replied bitterly. “You’re hurting my brother and God knows he doesn’t need it. He doesn’t deserve it.”
