Chasing Orange Skies

Maya's legs burned as she kept running, her playlist blasting something she'd definitely skip if she weren't too busy dying. Running away from problems didn't actually solve them — her therapist's voice in her head, annoyingly right — but sometimes you just needed to outrun the embarrassment of accidentally liking your crush's Instagram post from three years ago while scrolling at 2 AM.

The neighborhood basked in orange sunset light, everything golden and glowy like those aesthetic pics everyone posted with captions about 'living in the moment.' Maya snorted. Yeah, right. She was currently living in the moment of wanting to disappear into a black hole.

A dog darted out from between two houses — some chaotic golden retriever mix that clearly missed its calling as a distance runner. It bounded alongside her, tongue lolling, pure joy radiating off its goofy face.

'Nice pace, bro,' Maya muttered, kind of impressed.

The dog chose that moment to cut across her path, and suddenly she was eating pavement. Her knees scraped, her palms stung, and her dignity? Absolutely shattered.

But the dog doubled back, nudging her with a wet nose like it was checking if she was okay. Maya sat up, laughing despite herself because what else could she do? The universe had literally tried to take her out via chaotic canine.

'You're a menace,' she told the dog, scratching behind its ears. Its tail thumped against the sidewalk like a metronome set to 'pure happiness.'

An older guy on a porch called out, 'That's Buster! He's a menace to society but we keep him around.'

Maya dusted herself off, knees scraped but spirit weirdly intact. The orange light had faded to purple, streetlights flickering on. Her phone buzzed — her friends blowing up the group chat about something dumb someone said at school.

She started running again, slower this time. Buster watched her go like she was his new best friend. The Instagram incident still existed, yeah, but suddenly it felt smaller. Sometimes you just needed to fall, literally, to remember you could get back up.

Besides, she'd have a story for Monday. 'Got wrecked by a dog' was way more interesting than 'hid in my room all weekend.'