Connection Lost

The HDMI cable lay tangled on my floor like a dead snake, which was fitting considering my social life was equally lifeless. I'd been hiding in my room for three hours, doom-scrolling through Instagram while everyone else was at Jake's pool party. My phone buzzed again — another notification I'd ignore.

"You coming or what?" Maya had texted at seven. It was now nine.

I grabbed my laptop and the stupid cable, like maybe if I fixed the connection, I'd magically fix myself too. That's when the first lightning bolt cracked across the sky, illuminating my room in a strobe-light flash. I counted the seconds until the thunder rattled my windows. One, two, three... close.

My phone lit up with Maya's name again. "Storm knocked out the WiFi. Everyone's freaking out. You should come over."

Before I could overthink it, I grabbed my hoodie and headed out. The rain was coming down in sheets, water already flooding the gutters and turning the street into a river. I ran anyway, hoodie pulled up, getting absolutely soaked but not even caring.

When I burst through Jake's back door, dripping water all over his expensive rug, the whole room went quiet. Maya was there, hair wet from running outside earlier, grinning like she'd won something.

"Look who finally emerged from their cave," she said, handing me a towel.

The WiFi was still down. No one could post, no one could stream, no one could escape into their phones. And somehow, that's when everything actually started. We ended up sitting on the back porch, watching the lightning split the sky while we talked about everything and nothing — my anxiety about sophomore year, Jake's obsession with vintage video games, Maya's dream of moving to New York.

"You know," Maya said, as another bolt lit up the horizon, "sometimes the connection you need isn't the one you're looking for."

She bumped my shoulder with hers, and I realized the HDMI cable was still in my pocket. I'd been so focused on what I was missing that I almost missed what was actually happening. The storm outside wasn't the only thing that was electric.

"Yeah," I said, watching the water pool on the porch railing. "Sometimes you gotta lose the signal to find what's real."

The WiFi came back around midnight, but none of us checked our phones.