Gemotions

The campus cafeteria, usually bustling and lively, felt alien and unfriendly. Everyone around her seemed to be laughing, talking, enjoying themselves. She felt isolated, adrift in a sea of buoyant happiness she couldn't share.

She picked at her food, the tasteless chicken sandwich doing nothing to quell the gnawing ache in her stomach. Her appetite had vanished along with the scholarship. The sound of clattering trays and chatter became a deafening cacophony.

She rose abruptly, leaving her barely touched meal behind. The door swung shut behind her, cutting off the noise, offering only the echoing silence of the hallway.