Gemotions

The news, delivered in a university-wide email, hit Thomas with a jolt. His advisor, Professor Lee, was moving on. A wave of heat flushed his face. He felt his pulse quicken, a frantic drumbeat in his ears.

He abruptly shoved his chair back from the desk, the scrape of the legs jarring the silence. He started pacing, his steps erratic and hurried. He couldn't focus, couldn't think. The walls of his small apartment seemed to be closing in. He felt a desperate urge to escape the confines of his own head, a need to simply *do* something to stop the swirling panic.