“I could have something like an encounter out there – a vicarious experience completely free of any fears of infection or the face-to-face intimacy I didn’t know how to process.”

“What exactly are you looking for in a job? Like, what’s your best-case scenario for a new career?”“I haven’t really thought that far. The best-case scenario is just that I look back on this entire era of my life and laugh and say, ‘What a weird time that was. I can’t believe I did that.”

“It might have been the real reason I went out there at all, to hear all the nice things guys had to say when they got you alone, when they earned their shot in a booth with you.”

“I could have something like an encounter out there – a vicarious experience completely free of any fears of infection or the face-to-face intimacy I didn’t know how to process.”

“I couldn’t help wondering what it was that made me not good enough. It was a familiar feeling. I’d had it off and on my entire life.”

“It bothered me that we behaved differently when other people were at the arcade. It bothered me that we had to be different at different times. I wished we could always be ourselves.”

“People appeared to have no clue how truly horrible they were.”