Gemotions

Her breath hitched. Sarah reread the notification, her eyes wide. "Brenda Peterson wants to be your friend." Her fingers, usually so deft at navigating the digital world, felt suddenly clumsy. Brenda. The girl who’d made her life a misery in high school. The queen bee. The one who'd spread cruel rumors and excluded her.

A wave of heat washed over her, and she pushed herself away from her desk, the chair scraping loudly against the wooden floor. She paced her small living room, the phone clutched tightly in her hand. Why now? Years later, after she'd finally put the past behind her.

She mumbled, “What is this even about?” She thought about the endless taunts, the lockers covered in hateful sticky notes. Then, finally, she slowly sat back down, opened her messaging app, and sent a simple question: "Hey, Brenda. What's up?"