Gemotions

He spent hours meticulously arranging the books on his desk, each one a memory of her. The scholarship – a financial lifeline – had been a miracle. A mistake, as it turned out. This fact wasn’t the problem. The constant knot of anxiety in his stomach had only intensified since the discovery. It was the thought of losing the access this error gave him to the campus, the places she might be.

He found himself wandering the halls, hoping to bump into her. He’d start conversations with her friends, all attempts to glean even a whisper of information about her. He learned her favourite coffee shop, her preferred study spot. His heart thumped a frantic rhythm whenever he spotted her across the quad, a frantic dance of excitement.

One day, he saw her, talking to a man with a kind face. He felt something in his chest tighten, and he struggled to breathe properly. The knowledge that the scholarship was a mistake was nothing in comparison to this new fear.