Gemotions

“You’ve got the agility, the speed,” the coach had said. “We need you in the backfield.” Ben, a star cornerback, found himself standing at quarterback, the other players seeming to blur in his anxious gaze. His heart hammered a frantic rhythm against his ribs. The pressure of calling plays and making decisions was a mountain he wasn't sure he could climb.

During his first huddle, he stumbled over his words, his voice barely a whisper. He felt a wave of heat wash over him, a burning sensation in his cheeks. The other players tried to reassure him, but their words seemed distant, their faces distorted.

He spent the evening studying playbooks, his mind a tangled web of formations and routes. The pages blurred before his eyes. Every mistake he could make played out in vivid detail in his imagination.