"Get to know them." That seems like the only possible first step: to get them to understand that the flood has simply never ended for Sweeney. "Maybe they'll have ideas, I'm not real...good at things. Like this." Intellectual problems, existential issues. Her solution to everything falls back to the same core idea: get to know the person, then ignore the problem.

"People here are really smart. Scary smart, some of them. I'm afraid I just make things worse for you." But she holds onto him a little tighter. She wants to be here, she wants him to assure her that she isn't simply ruining his life and Sweeney's while she's at it.