Jack let him wind himself around her and found new ways to hold him so he could. "Nobody's going to let him touch you," she promised, "He so much as tries to talk to you in a hall and I'm gonna scream so loud his fucking eardrums bleed just so you don't have to hear his fucking voice when it ain't necessary."

She shook her head, "I get it. That ain't you. That's a picture of you the lawyer's gotta make to put this asshole in jail. It's shit that happened to you. You aren't the sum of your fucking shit, Sparkle. You're who you are because of how you came through it. Because you didn't let the shit stick to you, and you can't let it stick to you now. Don't matter what I hear, don't matter what you say, hell - don't even matter what happened to you back then. Not now, anyway, because that shit is all old news. It's over. I know who you are, man. And you ain't gonna be a different person when this is over. Not to me, not to fucking anyone who knows you now. That ain't how it works, Sparkle. I'll be there. I'll be in the courtroom with you every fucking day you're there. I know who you are so when you're up there and you have to say all that shit again, have to answer questions and that asshole's lawyer's trying to trip you up and make you look bad, I'll be there and you can look over and see me. I'll be angry for you. You can't be angry when you're up there. You can't fly off the handle or yell or be anything other than rational, so I'll be there and I'll be the angry for you. Cuz we both know I'm gonna be fucking furious when I hear this shit. But it ain't gonna change anything so far's you're concerned. I'm not going to think anything different. You're my friend. This whole fucking thing sucks. I'm already angry you had to live through shit like that, but that's no different than I felt about it since the first fucking moment I met you." Jack shrugged, "You're the same you that you've been, buddy. That ain't gonna change."