[For a moment, Michael is inexplicably offended. Something about the idea of the monster "infecting" him is... well, it's not entirely right, but it's not entirely wrong, either. He really has no right to be mad about it. Right?]

Oh, uh, that's a lot. Um, isn't it a good thing, though? Not the lonely part, but the fact that you have friends and people who care about you?

[He pauses, comes at it from a different angle.]

I've got next to nobody back home, and coming here, meeting everyone I've met, I don't think it spoiled me, I think it just made me realize how lonely I'd been before. And, um, about the other thing... Maybe you can just pretend it's me and not the monster.