Gemotions

“Congratulations, again, for your achievement,” the university president had said. It was not a congratulations. It was a retraction. John wanted to disappear, to dissolve into the plush chair he was sitting on in the opulent office. The ceremony, the applause, the flash of cameras – all meaningless now.

The president was still talking, offering vague platitudes. John barely heard him. He felt as though the world had become muted, the colors drained.

He forced a smile, a mask he barely managed to keep in place. He nodded when he was meant to, but his mind was elsewhere, lost in the calculations of how he would make it.