Gemotions

The rejection letter, crisp and impersonal, lay on Elara's desk. Her fingers, usually steady on the keyboard, trembled as she picked it up. She read it again, her eyes scanning each carefully chosen word, searching for a hidden meaning, a misplaced comma that might offer a glimmer of hope. Sunlight streamed in, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air, but she didn’t notice. She was tuned in to a different frequency now.

She marched to the window, peering out at the street below. Each passing car, each pedestrian, became a potential threat, a possible agent of disappointment. Her breath hitched. She had rewritten the ending three times, and still... She needed to be certain.

The phone rang, shattering the tense silence. It was her mother, checking in. Elara’s voice was clipped, her responses curt. She would not let any vulnerability show. No one must know the cost of this defeat.