Gemotions

The notification blinked on Amelia’s screen, a familiar face from a forgotten past. Mark Henderson. Friend request. Her breath hitched. She nearly dropped her phone. The sleek device felt suddenly heavy, radiating heat against her palm.

Her fingers trembled as she clicked on his profile. There he was, a slightly older, slightly softer version of the boy who used to trip her in the school hallway. The boy who’d called her names. A knot tightened in her stomach, a physical manifestation of all the unresolved anxieties of adolescence.

She shut her laptop, the click echoing too loudly in the otherwise silent apartment. The world seemed to tilt on its axis for a moment. She went to the kitchen and made a cup of chamomile tea, her hands fumbling with the tea bag as if she'd never done it before.