When they’d met, Ether had joked/claimed that she could read Abbott’s thoughts, and she probably could, because everyone could. Teachers knew when he was lying, guys knew when he was scared, girls knew when he was indulging lecherous fantasies. It had always made him feel like everyone else had a sense organ he was lacking because it never went the other way. He could never sense when someone else was being disingenuous or stringing him along so they could mock him later. Of course he hated socializing; that information imbalance was terrifying.
