[it would be the true version, as far as gansey's concerned. adam may be a trainwreck of a person, but so is ronan, so is noah, so is gansey himself. they're all just slowly derailing from slightly different tracks that happen to often travel parallel.]

He does. And he also likes me, and the Barns, and playing with baby mice with his little brother, and Chainsaw, and sitting in Cabeswater, and Irish music. Ronan likes flying, and he likes being tethered to the ground. You're not a fast car, Adam, or a bottle of vodka. He thinks he hides all that from me, that I couldn't smell the burnt brakes or booze when he didn't pass out at your place instead. He wasn't trying to get away with anything where it concerned you.

[not the same way, at least. gansey wouldn't consider ronan's shame over his sexuality or his crush on their best friend in even remotely the same corner as sneaking out to drag race or drinking himself into oblivion inside st. agnes.]

You could really hurt him, he could really hurt you. That's...that's how it works, Adam. People can hurt each other. You can do all of that to him now, or to me, or to Noah. It's not exactly the same, but it's not so different. You'd just also get to be...close, too. You both have some way to go figuring out how that works, but that's okay.

I mean...what makes you think I know what I'm doing?