Gemotions

The weight of the impending meeting settled on him like a physical presence. Leo had known the moment he saw the email, but he'd hoped, desperately, for a mistake. The scholarship had been everything. Now, everything felt different. The sun seemed too bright. The sky too vast.

He tried to go to class, but his mind was elsewhere. He couldn't concentrate. He kept fiddling with his pen, clicking it repeatedly, the sound echoing in his ears. He was filled with a sense of helplessness he had never known.

He sat in the back of the lecture hall, his gaze unfocused. He felt a deep, almost paralyzing sense of unease settle in his chest, a heavy, suffocating weight.