He was
feeling insulted (by a peer)

He was
feeling unfairly criticized (by a professional critic)

He was
feeling diminished (by commenters)

He was
feeling (merely) exposed

He had
a recurring sense that if

He had
allowed her to speak

He would
have been (destroyed) forever.

 

Source text: Heather Havrilesky, “When the Powerful Cry ‘Bully'”, New York Times April 26, 2016

PJ Wren is scientist and writer from Kensington, Maryland. Her work has appeared in The Lake, Apocrypha and Abstractions, and elsewhere.