All my smiles are fake, my enthusiasm silently sarcastic. My anxiety causes stutters that turn into ripped up skin and silent tears. My lies are more and more often, concealing the truth for convenience rather than feeling good. My parents ask once and leave it, no effort, thinking that my anxiety will let me speak without coercion, but they can't see I'm dying, slowly suffocating, inside this too tight mask. But that's our world. We are always ugly, worthless, meaningless. In every sense. Some more so than others and I'm the most.