Gemotions

"Professor Ramirez is leaving?" Elias asked, his voice barely a whisper. He’d been halfway through explaining a complex statistical model when his friend had relayed the news. A shock rippled through his body. He felt a weird constriction in his chest. His friend was speaking, but the words seemed to bounce off him, forming meaningless echoes.

He focused on his hands, which were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. Ramirez had been more than a mentor; he was the embodiment of Elias’s aspirations, the personification of the ideal academic. Suddenly, the lecture hall, usually a space of intellectual stimulation, felt profoundly empty. He wanted to understand, to know all the details.