Gemotions

The email arrived at 3:00 am. Awake anyway, she'd been staring at the ceiling, replaying the conversation in her head. The cursor blinked on the screen, a mocking metronome. She read the subject line: "Important Update." Then the body of the message, telling of a new job, the move, the distance. Sarah, her best friend, was gone.

She scrolled back up to the “Reply” button, but she didn’t click it. Instead, she stared at it. The words that came to mind were too sharp, too corrosive. She felt her chest tighten, and she took deep breaths.

She got up and paced the small confines of her apartment, her bare feet slapping the wood floor. It wasn't fair. The floorboards creaked. She picked up a picture frame and put it on the shelf, straightening it perfectly. Everything was wrong.