Connection Lost

Maya's ethernet cable was frayed again. Three weeks into sophomore year and she was already ghosting her former best friend at lunch. The HDMI cord hanging from her ceiling fan like a dead snake served as a reminder that her setup was temporary, like everything else in her life since her parents' separation.

"You coming tonight?" Jordan texted. Maya stared at her phone, thumb hovering. Jordan's friend group—the ones with perfect hair and weekend plans that actually happened—had adopted her, sort of. Like a stray cat they'd feed but wouldn't let inside.

Her actual cat, Mochi, chose that moment to knock over her water bottle. The spill inched toward her router like a slow-motion disaster movie.

"What are you doing?" Her mom appeared in the doorway, holding out those gummy vitamin things. "You haven't been taking these."

"I'm literally fifteen, I can handle my own vitamin intake." Maya regretted it instantly. Her mom's face did that crumpling thing again.

"Just trying to help, honey."

After she left, Maya's phone buzzed. Party at Jordan's. Everyone going. BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

She looked at her frayed cable. At Mochi, now grooming himself like he hadn't almost destroyed her entire internet connection. At her unfinished math homework spread across the floor like evidence of a crime.

Something in her chest untwisted. She grabbed her backpack and headed to Jordan's, Mochi trailing behind her like he'd been invited. When Jordan's friends stared, she didn't look down. When someone made a weird comment about her cat shirt, she laughed—actually laughed—instead of faking a smile.

Later, walking home under streetlights that made everything look like a music video, Maya realized she'd spent three months trying to become someone else. But the frayed cable still worked if you wiggled it right. Sometimes you didn't need to upgrade everything. Sometimes you just needed someone who didn't make you wiggle it.

Mochi was waiting by the door. Maya dropped a vitamin gummy on the floor for him to chase, then picked up her phone and texted her old best friend first. Miss you. Wanna hang tomorrow?

The reply came instantly: I thought you'd never ask.