Distractions

Sophia

“Are you all right?” I heard him ask, but I couldn’t answer.

Instead, I shook my head in negation.

I wasn’t all right. In fact, I was as far away from being all right as possible.

Everything I tried to suppress came back to me at once. Everything I faced in the last seven years, everything I pushed in some deep corner of my mind, broke through at the same time and weighted on me so intensely my knees collapsed. And if it weren’t for Kieran, who reacted promptly, I would have ended up on the ground.

My heart was beating fast, and I had trouble catching breath; no matter how much I fought to get enough air in my lungs, I failed to the point where dark spots started clouding my peripheral vision.

I was having a full-blown panic attack in the middle of the parking lot! I hadn’t had them for years, and they were an everyday occurrence after my parents died. And I knew what was to come. I was about to faint and create an even bigger scene and embarrass Kieran.

Then, suddenly, s