You let others cry, vent, scream. All the while, your pain was bubbling to the surface and there’d be this screeching-teapot ringing in your ears. You would pull into a CVS parking lot or run the shower and cry in secret. You’d scream internally or into a pillow. Then answer your phone like you hadn’t been up for two days straight. Not because others expected you to never have your own breakdowns. But because you sincerely thought if they saw you crumble, they would crumble even more and you didn’t want that for them.
