Gemotions

The phone rang incessantly, each call a fresh wave of humiliation. The scholarship news had spread like wildfire through his family. Marco ignored them all. He sat in his darkened room, the blinds drawn, refusing to answer the door.

His mother, a woman who always supported him, was going to be disappointed. He had always been the golden child, the one with the bright future. He imagined the questions, the judgment. He felt a profound sense of failure, weighing him down like a physical burden.

He stared at his reflection in the window, his expression grim. He looked away, the image too unbearable to contemplate. The silence of his room was broken only by the incessant ringing, a sound he could no longer bear.