Huh? Your birthdays got nothin' to do with it. I'm not gonna let anyone mess with you unless you want 'em to.

[ He thinks back to that conversation earlier this week, the history of having a talk like this before, how that ended, how he's different now.

The past shifts in his mind as he shifts in the beanbag, searching for a word and finding none that he likes, but deciding that it doesn't matter. He knows what it's not and that's fine. ]

You said you'd lend me your hand, right? So I'm givin' you mine. Hands are meant to hold onto somethin', whatever that it is, or whoever that is.