"Hey hey," she raised both hands, staving off the flow of words. "Believe you me, I am totally with you on the people bein' nice, thing. Man, before I got here the only people that were nice to me were the folks everyone else considered trouble - either demons, or human criminal types. I know more than a few guys in the Yakuza that'd have my back in a heartbeat. But if I asked my own schoolmates for any help in anything, I'd get a big fuck-you-very-much."

She huffed a sigh, shaking her head and folding her arms under her chest.

"Rider-dude seemed like a badass. You really lucked out there. Its kinda like when kids get imaginary friends - not that I'm callin' you a kid or sayin' he was imaginary. Only that, he came into your life when you really needed someone. He fixed things before they got too broke to fix, y'know? It was a good thing, but its just glue on a crack. You gotta make sure you don't stress it too much before the glue sets, y'know? Otherwise everything good you learned from him won't mean shit, n' that's no way to honor his memory, right? So let yourself have friends, Cake. It ain't gotta be me, I know I'm a hard pill to swallow. But there's people around here that'll suit you fine. Let 'em in. It might hurt, but it'll never be enough to kill ya."