Gemotions

The news arrived in a terse email, a cold, impersonal message. Emily reread it, her hands shaking so violently she could barely hold the phone. Her throat closed up. The screen seemed to swim.

Her parents, working hard to fund her education, would be devastated. She knew the weight of their expectations, the pressure they were under to see her succeed. The thought of disappointing them, of letting them down, was crushing.

She closed the door to her dorm room, the silence amplifying the turmoil within. She paced, unable to sit still, the floorboards groaning under her frantic steps. The familiar objects around her – her textbooks, her photos – now seemed to mock her.