He's relieved to see that Charlie doesn't seem to mind too much that he'd stumbled his way into his dream. Far less than Meyer had minded, but he'd seen far less, and Meyer struck him as much more of a control-freak in general.

What Charlie says about him being a weird kid earns a little smile from him, a touch rueful around the edges. Still, there's something refreshing about him just coming out and saying it. Ned knows that everyone who met him at that age thought it, and his peers didn't mind announcing it without any mincing of words, but adults and authority figures had always been different. They cloaked their discomfort with his affect and behavior in technical terms, euphemisms, implications. "So they told me," he says, not denying it.

The question about his own love life prompts a small flush to rise to Ned's cheeks, but he doesn't hesitate to answer. "I wouldn't describe it in quite that way, but yes, I do."