Gemotions

The exam results were delivered during a lecture, a casual dismissal of hard work. "D," the teacher had said. The room spun around him, faces morphing, voices distorting. The carefully constructed facade he'd maintained crumbled.

He needed air, space, a place to be alone. He pushed past the crowd, the murmurs of his classmates an unbearable cacophony. The campus, usually familiar and comforting, now felt hostile, a labyrinth designed to torment.

He escaped to a secluded spot behind the library, where he sat, alone, the cold of the ground seeping through his jeans.