Gemotions

“Oh, brilliant,” Robert said to the empty room. The invitation landed with a thud on the already cluttered coffee table. He knew what awaited him: the relentless parade of success stories, the thinly veiled pity, the sense of being an outsider.

He looked around his apartment, a space filled with reminders of past failures. The unfinished novel, the unfulfilled ambitions, the ghosts of what could have been.

He felt the familiar urge to shut down, to retreat, to disappear. The thought of facing his classmates, of having his inadequacies on display, filled him with a potent dread. He picked up the invitation, his fingers trembling.