By the time I was around normal people, I was thirty or so. I don't think there was much to be done by then... I met Birkin when we were teenagers and he was raised on the outside, and it was a bit easier then to follow him with regards to what he wanted to do socially.

He was a bit too emotional for my tastes, even then, but he was decent to me and seemed to want to spend time with me. We were the closest in age in the compound for a long time, and he was even younger than I was, so I don't blame him for wanting the companionship.

[...]

I do think I needed someone like that at the time, and it was good that he was there. But I was never really close to anyone else like that, no.