Gemotions

The dismissal, delivered with practiced professionalism, felt like a cruel irony. Coach Davis’s face had betrayed nothing, the words precise and measured. For Ethan, however, it was a sudden earthquake.

The evening seemed to stretch on, each minute an eternity. He couldn't eat. The television screen buzzed with images he couldn't comprehend. He kept replaying the scene in his mind, the coach's words a constant echo.

He sat on his porch swing, staring at the darkening sky. The familiar sounds of crickets and distant traffic now seemed to belong to another world. He felt disconnected, adrift.

He wrapped his arms around himself, as if trying to hold himself together, but the fragments of his shattered hopes continued to fall away.