“No,” I said. “It doesn’t. But it matters that you said it.”
“Would it have been different?” he said. “If I’d known. Would I not have done it?”
This was a better question than I had expected from a fourteen-year-old in the middle of a difficult conversation, the question underneath the surface question, which was whether knowing changes behavior or whether behavior has to change for different reasons.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I hope so. But I think the goal is for it not to matter whether you know. I think the goal is to be the kind of person who doesn’t do that regardless of whether there’s a Danny in your life.”
“The kind of person you want me to be,” he said.
“The kind of person I think you actually are,” I said. “Which is why tonight was such a surprise.”
