Dear Liam,

A paragraph from the book Mystic River:

"He felt the numbness in his face turn into a sting, but it wasn't the pain that bothered him.Pain had never bothered him all that much, and he never cried from it, not even when he crashed his bike and sliced his ankle open on the pedal as he fell and it had taken several stitches to close. It was a range of emotions he could feel pouring from the boys in the bathroom that cut into him. Hate, disgust, anger, contempt. All directed at him. He didn't understand why. He never bothered anyone in his whole life. Yet they hated him. And the hate made him feel orphaned. It made him feel Putrid and guilty and tiny. And he wept because he didn't want to feel that way."