I didn't move.
I didn't speak.
I just sat there.
The words still hung in the air, echoing in my mind over and over like a malfunctioning transmission.
The position of Astronaut...
And then a name that wasn't mine.
I wasn't chosen.
It didn't make sense.
Despite all the bravado that I put forward and the panic I had underneath, I truly thought that I was going to be chosen, be selected. I had walked into this competition thinking that I was beyond every other competitor here. I had told them as much. And yet, here I was, seated in silence, staring at an outcome I had never even considered.
I heard a chair scrape against the floor. The person who had actually won stood up—slowly, hesitantly, like they themselves didn't believe it. Even they looked toward me with uncertainty, as if waiting for me to argue, to demand an explanation, to do something.
I didn't.
Elliot, for once, had no words either. He simply turned and walked out of the room, his posture stiff.
