Dear Prudence,
In my group of friends, one woman treats me in a way that leaves me confused, and frankly, I don’t appreciate her behavior. For example, she once told me, out of the blue, that she doesn’t think I am dumb. I found that offensive. And even though we are not close, she asks extremely personal questions, like why I practice my religion, or she asks me to share stories from my childhood even though they are too traumatic to share randomly while getting lunch. She knows I was born in a war zone. Her other habit is to always talk about alcohol at our friends’ gatherings even though she knows I don’t drink. It makes me feel othered and ostracized. At our friends’ gatherings, I notice she is always observing me. And the first time her boyfriend met me, he exclaimed he had heard a lot about me. But it’s the small things I notice that give unfriendly vibes. Am I reading too much into this?
—Does She Want to Be Friends or Foe?