The way he said it was probably worse than any punch in the gut Kavinsky had ever received, any slur or nasty rumor Kavinsky had sublimated or worn as armor in the manufacture of who he'd been back in Henrietta, because it was so utterly, completely, not something that anyone from Henrietta would have ever said.

It was, however, something that Newt said.

"I...I should probably..." Kavinsky shuffled a little, swallowed, a little nerve wrecked, clutching his bag and staring at the box of chocolates, at Parrish's hound looking up at him with those soulful eyes and finally starting to look a little less wary, and definitely, absolutely, not at Adam Parrish.