Chaos at the Carlson's

Friday night and I'm stuck at the Carlson's house watching their pets instead of at Jake's party. My phone's blowing up with snapchats of everyone having way more fun than me, while I'm here in my carefully curated outfit—vintage thrift store tee, perfectly ripped jeans, enough eyeliner to say I care but not enough to look like I'm trying.

Mrs. Carlson had left me with detailed instructions: give Buster the golden retriever his vitamin D supplement (she's obsessed with holistic pet health), make sure Mittens the cat doesn't escape, and change their water bowls. Simple, right? That's what I thought until I tried to wrangle Buster, who apparently thinks he's still a puppy despite being roughly the size of a small couch.

He knocked into me while I was filling their water bowls, and suddenly I'm wearing half a gallon of dog water and my vintage tee is plastered to my body like a second skin. Mittens chose that moment to streak past me, catnip toy in mouth, straight for the open front door. I bolted after her, water dripping everywhere, and tripped over Buster in the process.

We ended up in a tangled heap on the front lawn—me, a very wet t-shirt, a confused golden retriever, and a cat that was now watching us like we were entertainment. And that's when Maya walked by. Maya, who I've had a crush on since seventh grade. Maya, who was actually heading to Jake's party.

"Having fun?" she asked, trying not to laugh at my wet hair and the dog currently sitting on my legs.

"Living the dream," I said, somehow finding my dignity in this absolute disaster. "Wanna help me catch a cat?"

She did. And we spent the next twenty minutes sitting on the Carlson's front porch, waiting for Mittens to come back down from the tree, talking about everything and nothing while Buster snoozed at our feet. Maya ended up skipping Jake's party. We swapped socials, and she helped me wrangle the pets back inside.

My vintage tee might be ruined, and I might have missed the party of the year, but somehow, accidentally covered in dog water with cat hair on my jeans and a very specific vitamin D supplement still in my pocket, I had the best night of my life.