Gemotions

"I... I can't believe it," I stammered, my voice barely a whisper. Professor Davies, my advisor, was leaving. The news hit me like a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs. The departmental email. Just... gone.

My hands felt clumsy, useless. I knocked over a stack of books, sending them tumbling to the floor. "Oh, God," I muttered, scrambling to pick them up, my cheeks burning with a fiery shame. I felt a desperate urge to run, to hide, to somehow rewind time and un-see the words. The library, once my sanctuary, suddenly felt like a cage.