Gemotions

The elegant card landed on the kitchen island, a stark white rectangle against the polished granite. His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. He reached for it, his movements slow and deliberate, almost reluctant. His reunion. After all this time.

He felt a knot of tension tighten in his stomach. He’d done everything he could to put the past behind him. He'd created a life, a persona, that was a world away from his high school years. The very thought of returning to that time, of facing those people, filled him with a deep disquiet.

He turned the card over in his hands, examining the details. He felt a compelling urge to rip it up, to destroy it. To pretend it had never arrived. To erase the past.