Gemotions

He’d always felt like the awkward, quiet one. Now, with the sound of power saws echoing from next door, Michael wished he could just disappear. He hunched further into the shadows of his living room, trying to make himself invisible. His reflection in the window showed a man in a faded t-shirt, staring back with dull eyes.

He hated the feeling creeping up his neck when he thought of facing his neighbor. What if he ran into him, covered in sawdust and sweat, while he was… like this? Staring out the window in his pyjamas, again.

He could hear the cheerful cadence of the neighbor's music bleeding through the newly-installed windows, and he couldn’t help but hear the unspoken message. Progress. Activity. Purpose. Things he felt he lacked. He stayed in his apartment, the renovation a beacon of what he wasn't.