I took out my hearing aids before the dance

Dear Delyara, I am sixteen, and tonight was my school dance. I wore a green dress my aunt altered and silver shoes that hurt before I even left the house. In the bathroom at school, I removed my hearing aids and put them in my purse because I was afraid the lights would catch them when I turned my head. Without them, the music became a heavy vibration under the floor and people’s mouths moved without meaning. A boy from my chemistry class asked me something. I smiled because I could not hear him. He repeated it twice, then walked away. I spent most of the night pretending the noise was too loud for everyone, not just me. When my mother picked me up, she asked whether I had danced. I said yes. In my bedroom, I put the hearing aids back in and heard the zipper on my dress, the air conditioner, my own breathing. The whole world returned at once. I wanted to cry because I had made myself deaf for three hours so people would not notice I needed help hearing them.