Gemotions

The buzz of the library, usually a comfort, now grated on Elena's nerves. She’d been preparing for the presentation for weeks, researching, writing, rehearsing. Now, all her effort felt pointless. The knowledge that she didn’t deserve the scholarship, that it was intended for someone else, gnawed at her. She felt a profound sense of wrongness, as if she had stolen something. Her hands felt clumsy, the papers she held shuffling and disorganized. She longed to disappear, to vanish into the shadows and let someone else have her place.