She sits on the covered porch on the front of the house as the baby shower goes on just inside. She had both ear buds in, and was trying to drown out the volatile voices in her head. Then, she felt a tap on her shoulder. One of her dad's friends tapped her on the shoulder, and when she turned around, waved at her. "Hey Madi," he said as she took an ear bud out. She waved back, but said nothing to him.
"Why are you out here? Are you doing drugs?" He asked both with mock seriousness, which she countered with actual seriousness. "No, sir. Not in the traditional sense, anyway." When she glanced up at him, his face had become an expression of actual concern. "First off," he said, "call me Scott, not sir. And second, what do you mean not in the traditional sense?"
"Well, I mean, right now, I'm taking this drug in through my ears. My drug is music. A drug is defined as a substance other than food that changes the way the body or mind works. And the music I listen to every day is a drug. And so are the books I read, and the TV shows I watch. Crazy, isn't it? How things most people don't think twice about can change you in such extraordinary ways."
When she looked up again, Scott was gone, back into the party inside. And once again she was left to drift in the sea of her own thoughts, and the music which saved her from them.