Gemotions

The sterile white walls of the dorm room seemed to press in on him as David re-read the email. A clerical error. His scholarship, gone. He felt a chill, a deep, pervasive cold that settled in his bones.

He could appeal, he supposed. He could make a case. But his mind kept drifting back to the stories he’d read when he was applying, the tales of hardship and need. He knew there was someone else who required the funds, someone who might be desperate for them. He had a support system. Maybe the other person did not.

He felt an unsettling sensation in the pit of his stomach. His parents would be disappointed. He pictured the faces of his friends, their dreams. He closed his eyes, and a wave of heat flushed through him. He found himself walking to the campus library.

There, he looked up the names of other scholarship recipients. He started searching.