Her voice isn't actually loud. I know this somewhere in the rational part of my brain. But as I drive, each word she speaks into her phone seems to amplify, bouncing off the car windows until I can feel the sound physically pressing against my face. The VOLUME::RISE isn't real - it's happening inside my head as my senses begin to overload.

I try to focus on the road but everything intensifies. The sun through the windshield burns too bright. The seat belt feels like it's cutting into my shoulder. The radio becomes unbearable noise. My mother talks at a normal volume, but my brain processes it as shouting. I want to explain what's happening, how ordinary sounds are transforming into something painful, but I know how it sounds - irrational, oversensitive. So I grip the wheel tighter, feel the anger build for something that isn't her fault, and wait for the moment when the pressure becomes too much. When it does, I'll snap at her for simply existing too loudly in a world where sometimes just being feels like too much.