Happy Doomsday

by David Sosnowski

Of course, her son’s problem wasn’t thinking outside the box; it was understanding there was a box in the first place and learning to live comfortably inside it.

That other kids considered him weird didn’t bother Dev; being weird was just synonymous with being smarter than they were, a point of pride purchased at the cost of one measly diagnosis. And so he sailed on through grades and topiques, blissfully clueless about his social cluelessness, thanks to a fortunate absence of friends to make him feel stupid by pointing it out.

Mo mirrored people—a world-class pro tip if you want to be popular. Pay attention to what people say, and reflect them back to themselves. It’ll either scare the shit out of them or make them fall in love with you—sometimes both.

“That’s how compromise works,” she explained. “Both sides are angry.”