Gemotions

He spent hours staring at the ceiling, the shadows stretching and contracting with the passing headlights of the city below. Liam couldn't eat. The news, delivered with a casual shrug by his mother, had carved a hollow ache into his stomach. A brother. Years he could never get back.

He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair, feeling the strands snag. The silence in his apartment felt heavier than usual. He felt a profound sense of loss, a gnawing emptiness. Everything, the life he’d built, felt…wrong.

The ringing phone jolted him. He stared at it, the illuminated screen a beacon in the darkness. He let it ring, again and again, the unanswered call a physical weight on his shoulders. He didn’t want to talk, to explain, to… anything.