The answer is about what she'd expected--he wouldn't be quite so distressed, she thinks, if he'd been through it before--and she nods. "I don't think it lasts longer than a week or so," she says. "That's about how long it was when it happened to Charlie. And Caleb, but don't you dare tell him I told you. I think he's still embarrassed."

She can see the discomfort in his face, the growing air of almost-sullen resentment that the situation he's in is happening at all. Gently, she reaches out, pulling him close but with a loose enough hold that he can move away. "We can find you other clothes. You might fit in some of mine, for a start, and then...I don't have to work at all today, so we can take as long as you need shopping for other things."