Gemotions

The phone slipped from Emily's grasp, clattering to the hardwood floor. The editor's voice, polite and regretful, still echoed in her ears. She stared at the receiver, the plastic suddenly cold and unfamiliar against her cheek.

Her breath came in short, shallow gasps. Her vision swam, the familiar lines of her apartment blurring and shifting. She sank to the floor, her legs failing to support her. The words, the rejection, reverberated through her core.

The silence that followed the phone call was deafening. She felt as though the very air had been sucked from the room, leaving her suffocating in a vacuum of disappointment.