"It does. It's the kind of thing you would suggest when you're trying to prove that you can come up with better training methods than what's in the books." He'd switched to present tense only to keep with the rules. They'd given up those kind of games years ago.

Holding both food and drink, he looked down at his best friend, trying to understand what was going on. Nothing felt right between them. At least not like it had been before he'd left New York. "Are you angry at me? You know why I had to leave."