"Why are you slacking on your studies?" nagged Eric's mother. Her fingers impatiently tapped on the steering wheel, with eyes shifted up to the rearview mirror. "You know David? He's already landed an internship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory!"

"That's cause he's already 18. I'm 13 and I just got into highschool..." Eric let out a slow, labored sigh. He tossed his head back against the passenger's headrest, closing his eyes with a hand naturally rubbing at the temples. Eric has developed a habit of sighing recently.

"Did you forget how old I am?"

She quickly furrows her brows at his response. As a mother, she didn't want to hear any rebuttals to her arguments, "Why are you so prickly? You know no good son acts this way to his mother!" She snapped in response, not realizing the irony of her question. "If you want to have this kind of attitude, find some other lady that would tolerate it! You'll find no one!" Her voice is becoming more shrill, its intensity raising the anxiety in Eric. "Do you even care about how I feel? You're always so selfish! You make me do everything for you and this is how you treat me." He knew the game she was playing, and decided to not entertain it.

He reaches for his pockets and pulls out his headphones. Slowly, he turns up the volume, hoping for his mother to not notice. She notices, and begins to yell, "Of course you don't care! I don't know what I did to make you this ungrateful! You never listen to me and what I have to say."

'You're going to tell me to prove that I care by studying even harder. I don't want to do that. I don't have the willpower.' Eric knew that answer would immediately be dismissed. There's no winning an argument with someone who thinks they are right.

"I just want the best for you! Do you think your own mother is doing all of this to make your life worse?"

Eric felt a twinge of guilt. Of course she wants the best for him, he knew that, but it's so hard to appreciate someone who doesn't see your individuality, something that makes up your humanity. Even though she was scolding him, Eric knew this was the only way his mother could converse with him, or at least it was the only way she knew. Eric wanted to just detach from the world.