Alisha's mother had taught her to be a nice girl, and nice girls smile a lot, and they're passive, and they don't get angry and lose their temper. Nice girls never openly criticize. They cut with one well-aimed slash of the tongue. They drown their victim with syrupy-sweet poison. They play the hurt victim.
Nice girls can be real bitches.
Sometimes Alisha would feel depressed and sad for weeks at a time. I was so lonely. I'd make friends with a new person and everything would be fine for a while, then pretty soon they'd start treating me rotten. I always let people take me for granted. It really hurt my feelings whenever that happened.