Gemotions

A cold knot tightened in her stomach. The words on the screen, the bureaucratic prose of denial, felt like a physical blow. She pictured the scholarship committee, smug and powerful, deciding her future with a flick of their pens. Their faces – she imagined them as bland, emotionless caricatures.

She wanted to scream, to shatter the pristine surfaces of her meticulously organized apartment. Her hands trembled as she pulled the application packet from the drawer, a neat stack of ambition and hope. She tore it in half, then again and again, until the pieces were scattered across the floor like confetti of failure.

She picked up her phone and dialed her mother’s number. She would not speak to her. She wanted to scream into the void and see the world burn.