She takes a deep breath in and immediately regrets it because now she doesn’t know what to do with all this excess air. She can feel it taking up space and swirling around behind her ribs. It makes her feel giddy and confused and completely delirious.

So she laughs.

Only it feels more like sobbing.

And once she’s run out of air for laugh-sobbing, she inevitably takes another breath and is forced to start all over again.

She laugh-sobs until the muscles in her stomach tense so hard they hurt, and her fists curl into themselves like black holes.