I wish I played it cool like OP here, because I kind of just withdrew and stayed really quiet, trying to avoid being noticed, which made me stand out more in hindsight... if I just laughed it off, no one would have cared, but because I cared, others did too

Some friends really made an effort to try to make me feel better but all the extra attention didn't help

I wish I could foresee that at the time lol it's really obvious to me now

Thank you for the empathy though, it does help to know it happens to others as well