Gemotions

"Okay, okay," Liam muttered, his voice barely a whisper. He felt a tightening in his stomach, a knot he couldn't seem to loosen. His mother’s legacy was spread out before him, a tapestry of his academic life.

He'd assumed she'd be like other parents, having thrown out his scribbles long ago. How wrong he was. Now a collection of drawings was in front of him. A self portrait he'd drawn. A particularly bad one.

He flipped through a stack of book reports, his fingers trembling slightly. What if there were embarrassing notes? Negative comments from the teacher? The thought made him feel incredibly small.