“I just don’t understand what this has to do with me,” Tina said grumbled in her mother’s general direction. Both of them avoided eye contact.

“Your cousin texted me – you know how hard it is for him to reach out to people – and specifically asked if you would be there,” Tina’s mom replied, as if she was explaining this to her daughter for the first time.

Tina’s cousin Darryl hasn’t mentioned a friend to his parents, let alone spent time with one outside of school, since he started 6th grade. He and Tina went to the same junior high, but she was in 8th grade – which might as well have been college in the eyes of 11 year olds. Darryl enjoyed music with no lyrics, couldn’t stand sports or video games, and spent his Saturdays reading about obscure wars on Wikipedia. In other words, kids his age did not find him relatable.

He wanted to go watch the 8th grade Spring orchestra concert, but he didn’t want to sit alone. While he could get away with walking alone in class and only speaking when a teacher called on him, Darryl knew that attending an event alone would confirm everyone’s assumption that he had no friends.

“First, orchestra is lame. Two, I wanna go hang out with Maggie tonight,” Tina groaned through her rainbow braces. Her mother didn’t like picking unnecessary fights. Over the last year or so, Tina went from seeing her mother as her best friend to a mosquito that won’t stop buzzing in her ear. Not that her mother spoke much. But she often lingered, waiting for Tina to say something to her.

“Fine,” her mother said. “Maybe next time.”