Gemotions

The notification pinged. It was from Emily Carter. He froze, the remote slipping from his grasp. Emily. She had made his life miserable in high school. He bent down to pick it up, his knuckles scraping the floor.

He was in his small, cluttered apartment. He went over to the window. Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets, blurring the city lights. He felt a familiar knot of tension in his stomach. The memory of the social ostracism, the secret jokes, the whispered insults, crashed over him.

He felt the cold, hard wood of the windowsill under his fingers. The air felt heavy, thick with the ghosts of the past. He went back to the phone. The request was still there. He took a long, steadying breath. Maybe this was the opportunity to start.