Gemotions

He stared at the blank screen, the cursor blinking like a taunt. The essay. He was supposed to be working on it, crafting the perfect words to secure his place. Instead, the words swam before his eyes, a jumbled mess. He had read the news, the news he knew was coming. His rival, the one always ahead, the one with the connections, the one with it all. A wave of heat washed over him, a burning sensation in his cheeks. He closed the document, then opened it again, and again. He deleted a paragraph, then a sentence, then just a word. He was drowning in his own inadequacy.