In retrospect, it should have been obvious. Just because Bradley treated him better than anyone had before, shouldn't have made him think Bradley loved Jake. People don't always love you back just because you love them first. But at the time, Jake thought they were on the same page--or at least Bradley pretended to be.
Maybe that’s just how it has to be. This world wasn't built for them, for fragile, complicated things like this, that burn as brightly and quickly as a dying star.
“I think about her sometimes. Not in the way you think about things. Nor in the way you describe them. I think about her the way you remember weird dreams. Her face, her clothes, her body -- they come back in shapes. Blurry ones. Like through the wall of a fish tank, or a glass.
I cannot remember her as a whole person, and I cannot trust any part of her that I remember. She is a ghost to me now. Maybe I never actually knew her at all.”
If that wasn’t a real apology to Rooster, then he didn’t know what was.