_{[There's a long pause and Heather just kind of... looks off-screen for awhile.]}

... I'm glad that you're my friend.

I don't know if I ever actually said that before, but...

I'm real glad.

_{[There. That's at least ONE thing she knows she won't regret saying. And it comes out straight, not in tangles of words like everything else has been.]}

I didn't have very many female friends before now, either.

... I mean, a few... but not many.