Gemotions

Eliza slammed her laptop shut, the metallic clang echoing in her silent apartment. She’d stumbled upon it while researching writing prompts for a new project. There, front and center, was her old college application essay, now a shining example of "perfect prose." A knot formed in her chest.

She ran a hand through her hair, tugging at the strands. It had been about her grandmother’s garden, a sentimental piece about resilience and the cyclical nature of life. Reading it now felt like a betrayal of her current, cynical self.

She felt a phantom ache in her jaw. The biting wit she now deployed at parties, the detachment she’d cultivated, felt so far away from the naive sentimentality of her past. She wished she could take it back, rewrite it, erase it from the digital ether.