Billy felt anxiety squeezing his chest, and he took a deep breath and looked down at his books because that made him less nervous than looking directly at her. "I'm fine!" he said, and then smiled sheepishly at her. "Just fine. How are you?" He paused. "Which is not to say that you're not, you know, fine yourself or anything, I just. It's part of the standard pleasantries that have been encoded into me by society from a young age." another deep breath.

"Sorry, I come on kinda strong."