Gemotions

The coffee shop buzzed with a Saturday morning crowd, but for Maya, the world was muffled and distant. She hunched over her latte, the warmth doing little to penetrate the chill that had settled in her bones. She’d always been a private person, a keeper of secrets. Now, those secrets were splashed across the internet, adorned with laughing emojis and mocking memes. Each mention, each quotation, felt like a personal assault. She felt a profound weight, a crushing sense of exposure. She pushed the unfinished latte away, the porcelain rim a cold circle against the table.