Gemotions

Liam stared at the glowing screen. Ms. Chen, his English teacher, had just started following him on Twitter. A wave of nausea washed over him. He was already failing her class, a fact that had him staring down the barrel of summer school. His mom would kill him. He had to pass.

He replayed their last conversation in his head, searching for a clue as to why she might be looking at his profile. He’d barely said a word in class all semester, too preoccupied with his part-time job and keeping his head above water. His stomach churned. He felt like he was drowning.

He knew she wouldn’t approve of his tweets about the cost of living in his neighborhood, the ones that were just him venting. He knew, with a sinking feeling, that his future hinged on her good graces. So he cleared his history, deleted a few choice tweets, and then, slowly, he deactivated his account altogether, the digital silence feeling both terrifying and, somehow, a relief.