Gemotions

The car ride home was a silent inferno. My dad, bless his heart, kept glancing over, his face etched with concern. I just stared out the window, the familiar scenery blurring into a meaningless tapestry of green and brown. The team, the practices, the whole season… all the hard work felt cheap now, reduced to nothing.

When we got home, I just walked right past my mom's welcoming hug, past the smell of dinner, and straight to my room. Slamming the door, the sound echoed in my ears, a sharp punctuation mark on the end of my athletic chapter. The bed suddenly felt like an island, and I sank into it, the covers offering no solace, only the cold, hard realization of what I wasn't.