Gemotions

The notification buzzed, a tiny digital mosquito bite on the otherwise pristine screen. Mark's thumb hovered, then tapped. A face from the past stared back, a smug expression frozen in digital amber. He hadn’t thought of Kevin in… well, a very long time. His fingers curled in on themselves. He scrolled past the request. Nope. Not today. Definitely not today.

His coffee grew cold as he stared at the request again. The sheer audacity of it. The gall. As if all those playground humiliations were just… forgotten? He finally clicked “view profile” with a sigh, the click echoing in the otherwise quiet apartment.

Kevin’s profile. Same awful haircut. Same aggressively cheerful photos. Apparently, he was now a “life coach.” Mark nearly choked on his coffee. Life coach? The irony of it all. He closed the laptop with a snap, the sound of the lid shutting a final punctuation mark to the whole, ridiculous thing. He needed more coffee. Hot coffee.