Gemotions

Her breath hitched. The air in the dorm room suddenly felt impossibly thick, like wading through molasses. Across the room, Liam casually flipped through a textbook, but she saw it – her journal, lying open on his desk. Its familiar blue cover, once a source of comfort, now seemed to scream her secrets to the world. A coldness settled in her stomach, a knot tightening with each passing second.

She forced a laugh, a brittle sound that felt foreign even to her own ears. "Hey, uh, find anything interesting?" Her voice wavered, betraying the tremor that had begun to overtake her hands. She wanted to scream, to grab the journal and shred it, but her feet were rooted to the floor.

Liam looked up, feigning surprise. "Oh, hey, Sarah. Nah, just looking for a pen. Didn’t realize that was yours." He gestured vaguely towards the offending object, his gaze momentarily avoiding hers. She could almost feel the weight of every word she had confided, the vulnerability now exposed, laid bare for his perusal.