Gemotions

The balloons, deflated and crumpled in the corner, seemed to mock Amelia. She’d spent weeks, painstakingly planning every detail of her friend Chloe's surprise birthday bash. Now, standing alone in the rented party hall, she felt a burning heat climb her neck. She fiddled with the loose thread on her dress, the silk feeling suddenly clingy and suffocating. The caterer's van, still parked outside, was a monument to her folly.

A strangled cough escaped her lips. She had imagined Chloe's delighted face, the cheers, the laughter. Instead, there was only silence, broken occasionally by the distant hum of the refrigerators. Chloe, she thought, would probably be at home, happily unaware of Amelia's colossal failure. She wanted the floor to swallow her whole.