Gemotions

"They what?" Maya stammered, the phone slipping slightly in her sweaty palm. Her roommate, Chloe, had just come back from the library and relayed the news. Maya felt a cold rush through her veins. Her breath hitched. The library, the very place she was supposed to be, felt an ocean away now.

Chloe kept talking, but Maya couldn’t focus on the words. She just kept seeing the faces of her friends, the professors she’d come to admire. The future they’d all imagined, suddenly vanished. She slumped onto her bed, feeling a profound sense of loss, a bottomless pit opening inside her. She felt a dull ache in her chest, a physical manifestation of her bewilderment.