Gemotions

Rain hammered against the windowpane, mirroring the relentless drumming in Amelia's temples. She stared at the notification on her screen: a friend request from Mark Jenkins. Her stomach clenched. It had been twenty years since she'd last seen him, twenty years since the relentless taunts and playground games that had chipped away at her confidence. Now, here he was, digitally resurrected. She sighed, a puff of air escaping her lips that felt heavy with the accumulated weight of a long week.

Her fingers hovered over the 'Accept' button, then retracted. She clicked on his profile, a perfunctory scroll through pictures of smiling children and sun-drenched vacations. The veneer of a perfect life, she observed, the same one he’d crafted back then. The same one she’d always felt excluded from. She shut her laptop with a snap, the sound echoing in the quiet apartment. Tonight, she’d eat instant noodles for dinner, the easiest, most undemanding option.