Gemotions

A grin split Leo's face as he walked across campus. The email had been a gut punch, the kind that steals your breath. He shouldn't have gotten the scholarship. Another student, apparently a prodigy, should have received it. But the money was his now. The decision, final. A new weight had lifted from his shoulders, freeing him.

He ran a hand through his hair, a nervous habit he couldn’t seem to break. It wasn’t guilt, exactly. More like… a giddy sense of freedom, coupled with a dash of adrenaline. Every leaf crunching under his boots, every bird singing in the crisp morning air, seemed amplified, alive. He could feel the blood pumping, the oxygen flowing. He felt like he could run for miles.