Gemotions

The library felt suffocating. The air was too thick, the silence too loud. Maya sat hunched over her textbook, but she couldn't focus. Her essay, "Finding Home in the Fragments," was now required reading for prospective students. She could already feel the stares.

She had chosen to sit in a cubicle, hoping to achieve a sense of privacy, but her thoughts were far from quiet. She kept imagining people reading the words she'd written. She could see them studying her, scrutinizing her.

She slammed the textbook shut and took a deep, shaky breath. She longed to be anywhere else. She wanted to be anywhere that wasn't here. She gathered her things, abandoning the library to a state of internal panic.