Gemotions

The bustling crowd at the retirement party seemed to close in on Emily. She felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She excused herself, leaving her sister to hold her father’s arm. She found a quiet corner in the hall, away from the chatter and the clinking glasses, and leaned against the wall.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket: a text from her boyfriend. She stared at it, the words blurring. He'd said he would join her but hadn’t arrived. She felt a familiar hollowness, a sense of being completely adrift.

She was the one chosen to speak, chosen to express the family’s collective joy, a joy she did not feel. The pressure to perform was crushing. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the noise, the expectations, the crushing weight of it all.