social exclusion · anxious · vulnerable · emotional · isolation · melancholy · friendship fracture · hesitant · lonely · psychological
The cafeteria hums with a hundred overlapping conversations, but your usual table sits in a bubble of quiet. A beam of sunlight catches the condensation on a forgotten drink can as your friends lean in close, their shared joke dying on their lips the instant you step into the circle. A quick, loaded glance passes between them before they resume talking, their voices forming a wall you can't seem to scale. You force your mouth into a smile, but the space around you feels frigid. you, why do I feel like I'm haunting my own life?