"It's okay. No big deal." He's calm again now, past the dizzying, stupid fear that comes when he's at risk of being exposed, and now he just feels stupid. This poor girl. She's perfectly nice, not even particularly awkward, compared with his friends. He just manages to keep doing the wrong thing. He's certainly not clear on how he might fix it now.

There's one way he knows to keep a conversation moving through a rough patch, though, even if it's a tricky segue. "So what would you be doing if you weren't in Creepy Kidnapping City? Besides eating doughnuts, I mean. Just curious, since, you know, people seem to be here from everywhere." People can usually be persuaded to talk about themselves, with the added bonus of taking attention away from him.