Gemotions

Liam stared at the ceiling, unblinking. His breakfast, a congealing bowl of cereal, sat untouched on his nightstand. He’d been up for hours, wrestling with the same dread. Mrs. Davis, his English teacher, followed him on Instagram. He knew it because he'd checked, repeatedly, his heart a trapped bird hammering against his ribs.

A wave of nausea washed over him. He hated the posts he'd made. The desperate attempts to look 'cool'. The posed pictures with his friends. The comments he'd made on other people's posts. Everything suddenly seemed so pathetic. He felt a profound sense of self-loathing.

His phone buzzed. It was a notification from Mrs. Davis. A comment on a post from last week about a book he pretended to have read. His hands trembled as he muted the notification.