Disconnected

Maya's heart raced as she patted her pocket for the third time. Empty. Her iPhone—her actual lifeline to existence—was gone. Somewhere between the bus stop and Jackson's house, she'd lost the one thing that mattered.

"Dude, you look like you saw a ghost," Jackson said, looking up from his phone.

"I think I'm gonna die," Maya said, already running back the way she came. "My phone. I literally can't.

Jackson shrugged, barely looking up. "Just use Find My iPhone?"

"IF I COULD USE FIND MY IPHONE, I WOULDN'T BE LOSING MY IPHONE, WOULD I?"

The sarcasm was lost on him. Maya sprinted down the street, her Connes skidding on the sidewalk. This wasn't just about the phone—well, okay, mostly it was. But also, her entire social existence lived in that device. The group chat. The TikTok account she'd been curating for months. The pictures from last Friday's party that she hadn't posted yet.

She was halfway back to the bus stop when she heard it. Barking.

A Golden Retriever sat on someone's lawn, tail thumping against the grass like a metronome. And next to the dog? A phone case. Hot pink with that aesthetic flower print she'd spent twenty minutes choosing.

"OMG," Maya breathed, slowing to a walk. The dog nudged the phone case with its nose, whining softly.

"Did you... were you sitting on my phone?" Maya asked the dog. The dog licked her hand.

She scooped up her iPhone, checking it frantically. Still alive. 47 notifications. The group chat was blowing up about something—probably drama she needed to know about immediately.

But instead of checking, Maya sat down on the grass next to the dog. It was kind of nice, actually. Just sitting there with this random dog who'd found her phone. The dog leaned into her side, warm and solid and completely uninterested in how many followers she had or whether her post was getting enough likes.

"You're cooler than half the people I know," Maya told the dog. It licked her face again.

She sat there for ten minutes before her phone started buzzing like crazy. Jackson was calling. Probably wondering what was taking so long.

Maya stood up, brushing grass from her jeans. "See you around, dog," she said. The dog barked, once, like it understood.

Walking back to Jackson's, Maya kept her phone in her pocket. For once, she didn't feel the need to check it. The group chat could wait. The TikTok likes would be there later. Right now, she was just enjoying the feeling of being disconnected for once.

Okay, maybe for like five more minutes. Then she'd check. Probably.