Axel managed to recover himself and pulled a face, looking up at the kid with an astounded expression. It was weird, it was creepy but it certainly reminded him a lot of his early days with James Jesse. Those letters, the things they described, the casual way he spoke about stuff like this? It was all there. In this kid. And for whatever reason, he laughed.

It was hard to know what to feel and a lot of the time, when he was this freaked out, it just came out like a nervous tick.

"No fucking way, I can't stomach shit right now." Axel looked away from the guy and tried to get the mental image of glass in someone's eye out of his head. It was not really doing much for his appetite. "I need a drink."

He should get away from this kid, he should be making distance and running. And yet, he looked at him and shrugged. "You in?"