Crashing down around me

When we arrived at the airport, Matt took Val’s and my bags to check while we went go get snacks and magazines for the two-hour plane ride.
“Vi? Which one do you want, Sweetie?” Val’s soothing voice cut through my brain like a plastic spork. She was holding three tabloids in front of my face, each screaming out some scandalous celebrity happening. Us Weekly, People, and Glamour were splayed in her fingers, fanned out like a hand of cards.
I mindlessly grabbed the People and Us Weekly and set them on the counter where the cashier was ringing up the bags of chips and pretzels Val had picked out for us.
This was how it was now. I didn’t talk if I could help it, using small gestures and facial expressions to convey the answers to their numerous questions. I rarely slept, the evidence of such shadowing my eyes in plum purple bruises. I didn’t eat, pushing the food expertly around my plate to make it look like I had taken a few bites when really I had had none. I was loosing myself to the grief, not knowing how to handle the ever present sadness that was controlling my life.