Redsand Canyon Do's and Donts' for crushes

It was awful of him, he knew, but he shrank back from her a little bit as she told him more of her backstory. He didn’t quite follow this either, though he supposed he understood the gist of it. She had come from a war-torn place and had been furthermore victimized by her own mother.

Atreus thought of his own parents. He didn’t remember Arielle at all at this point. There was quite a lot of contention in his memories of Aventus, complicated further by his aunt’s treatment in the end. He knew what it was like to be mistreated by family, he thought, but not abused. They had never beaten him.

He didn’t know what to say. Atreus liked Inkeri quite a lot but he was in over his head. And the touches that had come so easily suddenly felt completely insufficient, even inappropriate. Any urge to reach out and comfort her was thwarted by a growing feeling of overwhelming perturbation.