Gemotions

The email sat in Amelia's inbox, bolded and insistent, a digital slap in the face. Her scholarship, the one that had allowed her to breathe easy for the first time in years, was under review. A clerical error, they explained. A mistake. She read it again, her breath hitching in her chest. The university building across the quad suddenly looked distant, the cheerful chatter of other students a meaningless drone. She felt a cold trickle slide down her spine.

She slammed her laptop shut, the sudden noise echoing in the quiet library. Picking up her coffee, she took a large gulp, the bitter taste doing nothing to quell the growing unease. What did it mean? Did she have to move back home? Was everything she'd worked for suddenly unraveling? A knot formed in her stomach, twisting with each frantic thought.