Cable Knots and Bear Hugs

My hair was doing that thing again — the frizz that announced to the entire world that I was stressing. Which I definitely was, because Jordan was coming over in twenty minutes and I'd just spent an hour trying to perfect that casual-but-not-trying-too-hard look that social media promised was effortless.

"You look fine," Maya said, not looking up from her phone. "Jordan's your best friend. They've seen you with bedhead. Remember that time at camp?"

I groaned and flopped onto my bed, staring at the ceiling where a stuffed bear from my childhood collection watched with judgment. "That was three years ago. Everything's different now. What if it's weird? What if things have changed and we don't know how to talk anymore?"

"You literally text every day," Maya pointed out, finally glancing up. "You're overthinking this. Again."

My phone buzzed. Jordan was here. I grabbed it off the nightstand, tangling myself in the charging cable like it was some kind of trap I'd set for myself. Because of course I did.

Jordan stood in the doorway, looking somehow taller and more confident than I remembered. Their hair was shorter now, styled in that way that said they knew exactly who they were.

"Hey," Jordan said, and then everything was fine. We sat on my bed and talked for hours about nothing and everything — about how high school was actually kind of awful, about how we both felt like everyone else had gotten the manual on being cool while we were still figuring stuff out.

Jordan held up their phone. "My cable is fraying at the end. I keep meaning to get a new one but I'm broke."

"I have extras," I said, reaching into my drawer. "My mom buys them in bulk because she's convinced they're going to stop making them."

We laughed about that, and about the bear still on my shelf, and about how nervous I'd been for no reason. Later, as we walked to get ice cream, Jordan's palm brushed against mine — not holding hands, just close. The kind of closeness that meant everything was going to be okay.

"Same time next week?" Jordan asked.

"Definitely," I said. And I didn't even worry about my hair.