"Pacing down the street again, a briskly striding silhouette"

"So how are you?"

You don't care. None of you fucking do. You're only asking because you think I'll say "I'm fine". And I conform to the expectations. Because what's the point in doing otherwise? Where will answering with the truth get me? Other than being tarnished with the mental brush to go with the one marked "disappointment". None of you could give a shit about the answer. To tell you the truth, I don't give a shit how you are. We're only having this conversation because of the misfortune of common ancestry. We both know the conversation isn't going to go on much longer than two minutes before we both go off and say the exact same things to other people. Perhaps, to make things slightly different, someone else will join in this conversation so one of us will repeat the exact same things whilst the other is still standing there. Perhaps that person may know who I am, so maybe they'll ask me how I am. And I can repeat the same old lies about how everything is okay.