People are talking.
I see them smiling and hear the rise and fall of their laugher, their voices flowing around me as I slip soundlessly through the moving clusters. They seem so excited, but I cannot fathom what new information they have to share or plan or communicate–perhaps nothing at all.
I know the exercise is important for maintaining relationships, but when I try to participate the words fail to form and my mouth feels full of cotton. All I want is to escape, to hide away from the sea of socialization in the dark and the quiet, to reach out my hand into the nothingness and feel you there.