A girl I was friends with in elementary school. We were close as could be, and she always wanted to come to my house and sleepover. I was all on board about it, but my parents thought she was too erratic and got iffy after a few years. I finally convinced her to let me go to her house, but she very obviously wasn't happy about it. Her mom liked me and welcomed me in, but for the next two hours my friend and her mom were in a screaming match. It reached its crescendo and mom told daughter she wished she hadn't had her. Friend ran upstairs to her room, mom immediately put on nice face with me and said I was such a sweet girl. I follow friend upstairs and comfort her while she cries. This all happened in like the fifth grade.

I guess that opened the floodgates because she started telling me all kinds of stuff about her home life and how miserable it was. Normally, it was just fighting with her mom and her sister. As the years went by it got worse. In the seventh grade, everything went to shit. Her sister was driving them both to the movies and the two started fighting. Her sister clocked her in the nose and my friend starts losing her shit. Sister tells her to get out of the car, and she does. Sister drives off. As my friend is walking up the side of the road, a bunch of cops pull up and put her in the back of their car. Apparently, her sister called and said she started going ham on her while she was driving and that she tried to grab the wheel and drive them into the median. I think she had to spend a few nights in juvie, because I didn't see her until a week later. At that point, she has a fading bruise across the bridge of her nose, but tells me she feels fine. Months later, she tells me her nose has been hurting ever since to the point where she cries if she touches it. I'm tellin