Gemotions

He saw the email notification pop up at the corner of his screen. A quick glance revealed the sender, and his stomach lurched. His fingers hesitated over the delete button, his entire body tensing. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t just instantly trashed it. He knew the contents. He knew the implied pressure.

He clicked on the email. The subject line, “Reunion Invitation!”, seemed to shout at him. His heart began to hammer against his ribs, a frantic, irregular rhythm. He hunched over his keyboard, the fluorescent lights of his office suddenly feeling blindingly bright. He felt a desperate urge to disappear, to vanish into the thin air.

“What was I doing ten years ago? What am I even doing *now*?” he mumbled under his breath, his voice barely audible. He closed his laptop, and the silence of the office seemed to amplify the internal chaos. He needed to be anywhere but there, facing that.