It's funny, no one knows about that one day I went to the Guidance office
And I cried for an hour
I was sitting in a corner
On the floor
There were black linoleum tiles
Coated with a fine pelt of dust bunnies.

I tried breathing in the problems people came to discuss in anguish and the tears and despair of my predecessors
To fill that empty space in the back of my throat
That you get when you cry for too long and your face is stiff with tears and your eyes sting, because  you've been holding a staring contest with reality, and you lost, but after you caved, and blinked, the sting still lingered.

The space at the back of my throat stayed empty and it stayed that way all day.
When I went back to class and my eyes were rimmed red and occasionally my breaths would come in short gasps like a marathon runner- I guess I was running a marathon- although one of a different sort,
And nobody noticed I had been crying because on the day I chose to break down another wave of bad news hit the school and so I was overshadowed so they all had trembling jaws and glistening eyes as well and,

I still can't decide whether or not I wanted someone to notice that I had been crying.