Gemotions

He hadn't planned on returning to the campus bookstore. Now, standing amidst the rows of brightly colored textbooks, there it was: the admissions guide. The cover screamed for attention, and he was struck with the feeling of intense nausea. He felt it rise in his chest.

He saw the picture of his old, young self, the image and the essay, a grotesque reminder of a past he'd rather leave buried. He swallowed hard, trying to quell the rising bile. He wanted to vanish, to be invisible, to escape the judging eyes of the strangers around him.

He pushed past the displays, ignoring the cashier’s cheerful greeting. He needed to get away from the book, from the campus, from the suffocating pressure of his own history.