Gemotions

He found himself pacing the worn wooden floorboards of his apartment, a familiar route suddenly foreign. Mark couldn't sit still. The news, delivered with a casual shrug from Sarah, was still echoing in his ears: "California. My dad got a job offer." He felt a tightening in his chest, a sensation akin to being underwater, where the pressure constantly mounted. He rubbed his palms together, trying to generate some semblance of warmth.

The silence in the room was deafening, broken only by the rhythmic thud of his own footfalls. He felt a need to fill the void, to do *something*. He grabbed his keys, intending to go for a run, but the image of her face, the way her eyes had sparkled with excitement, stalled him. He couldn’t face the open road, not yet.