Gemotions

He stared at the spreadsheet on his laptop, lines of numbers blurring before his eyes. He’d been working all afternoon, trying to focus on his project, but his mind kept wandering. The cause: a hamster. His roommate, Chloe, had suggested a hamster. He was completely out of sorts.

He rubbed his temples, trying to clear his head, but the image of a tiny rodent, scurrying in a plastic cage, kept popping into his thoughts. He liked things neat, organized, predictable. A creature with nocturnal habits, prone to chewing and gnawing, disrupted that carefully constructed routine.

He slammed his laptop shut, the sudden noise startling him. He felt an ache in his chest, a sense of being adrift in a sea of unknowns.