Chasing Sunsets

Maya stood at the edge of the creek, toes squished into mud while everyone else splash-fought in the water like they didn't have finals next week. She clutched her phone—twelve notifications from her study group blowing up about the bio project they'd procrastinated on since forever.

"You coming in or what?" Jake called from the middle of the creek. He'd been crushing on her since homecoming, but Maya was still getting over Tyler, who'd ghosted her after third period like she didn't exist.

"In a minute," she lied, pulling the vitamin D supplement from her pocket. Her mom had bought the giant bottle after the doctor said she was deficient, which apparently explained why Maya was always tired and her hair looked "kinda frizzy." She dry-swallowed the chalky pill without water—again—and coughed.

"Bull," someone shouted. The whole group turned toward the old pasture where a massive bull stood at the fence, staring them down like they were intruders on his land.

"That's Mr. Henderson's prize bull," Jake said, scrambling out of the water. "My dad says it charges at anything that moves."

Maya's heart thudded. The bull huffed, steam puffing from its nostrils. Someone's phone lit up with the sunset-filtered photo they'd all been trying to capture for Instagram—a golden moment slipping away while they stood frozen like idiots.

Then it happened. The bull didn't charge. It just watched them with sad, ancient eyes, then turned and lumbered back toward the barn like they weren't worth the effort.

"Anti-climactic much?" Jake laughed, but his voice shook.

They all jumped back in the water, clothes and all, until they were shivering and Maya's phone buzzed with three new messages from Tyler: "sorry i've been weird. u wanna hang this weekend?"

She stood waist-deep in the creek, water swirling around her legs, and typed back: "no."

The sun dipped below the trees, painting everything pink and gold. For the first time in forever, Maya felt solid—like she was exactly where she was supposed to be, vitamin deficiencies and ghosting exes and scary bulls and all.