"Sorry," he answers. He probably should've figured, the way Johnny was tearing the pages off him. But at least it doesn't seem like the end of the world. That's something.

"A book you wrote?" he asks, trying to prompt a bit more information. If Johnny is being literal (and based on his behavior, he probably is) about it nearly killing him, then Seth can certainly understand why Johnny feels so strongly about it. It still doesn't give much info on how or why it was so bad, but... it might simply be none of Seth's business, so he's not sure he wants to ask outright. He just wants to know enough to help.