Gemotions

He walked the familiar streets of his childhood neighborhood, the houses looking smaller than he remembered. Every memory was a painful reminder of what he had lost. Liam kicked a loose pebble across the cracked sidewalk.

He retrieved the letter from a dusty drawer in his childhood room. It was written to his high school football coach. The letter was full of hope and ambition for the future, detailing plans to make it to the top.

"I will never give up!" the younger Liam had written. The sentiment echoed in his ears, a cruel jest. Now, the weight of his failures, the dashed dreams, pressed down on him with crushing force.