Broken Boulder if not for my shoulders

He swallowed hard when he heard Lily's approach, gathering what little energy he had as he faced her. Her distance did not go unnoticed, but the hurt he felt was muted; dull in comparison to what it should have been. It was lost among so many other reasons to hurt. Alarian forced himself to smile in response to her comment.
It died with her question. Yeah, The answer came automatically; he had never intended to hide what happened from her, exactly. I ran into someone from my past. He's— after me... and Lanawyn. He realized it hurt to admit the latter— to know that he had let him get away after seeing the look in his eyes when he heard Lanawyn was here. Alarian shifted, suddenly wondering what Lanawyn had told her about why he left— if anything.