"I do think abnormal can pass for normal. I think if you put on the right clothes, and never deviate from the right script, and pay attention to every little thing you do down to the way you breathe and the way you blink, abnormal can pass for normal. I spent a long time trying to do that. I was miserable. More miserable, I mean."

He takes another sip of his coffee, although it's cooling off quickly. "If you want people to think you're normal, you can. It just takes a lot of work. And I don't think the work's worth it. I may be a freak, I may be crazy, but if I hadn't been a crazy freak, I never would have met you, right?"

Because if he hadn't been a crazy freak, nobody would have thrown pie at him, and even if they had, he never would have been so talkative and bold with Ned. There's a sense of freedom in abnormality that he's only just started to embrace. For years, he'd tried desperately to fit in, despite feeling displaced wherever he went. Now he's started to accept that, perhaps, he's just not meant to fit in. Maybe Ned's like that too.