Electric Orange Summer

The lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating my disastrous hair in the bathroom mirror. Orange. Not a cute sunset orange, but a radioactive traffic cone orange. My friend Kai had warned me not to box-dye it in my bathroom at midnight, but when did I ever listen?

"You look like a Cheeto," my little brother announced, leaning in the doorway.

"Get lost, Tyler." I grabbed my hoodie, ready to bail before Mom saw my chemical experimentation. My phone buzzed — Kai's meme account had posted another story without me. We'd been inseparable since seventh grade, but lately every conversation felt like walking on eggshells.

I slipped out the back door, needing to clear my head. The storm had cooled everything down, but my face still burned with humiliation. That's when I heard it — a pathetic mewling from behind the garage.

A cat. Not just any cat — the scrawniest, most pathetic creature I'd ever seen, soaked and shivering. Its fur was the same exact unfortunate shade as my hair.

"Great," I muttered. "We're both disasters."

I grabbed an old towel and scooped it up. It purred instantly, like it had been waiting for someone pathetic enough to rescue it. That's when headlights swept across the driveway.

Kai's sister's beat-up Honda. I froze, hugging this electric orange cat like my dignity depended on it.

"Maya?" Kai stepped out, umbrella in hand. They froze. Then burst out laughing. Not mean laughter — the real kind, the kind we used to share before everything got weird and distant.

"Is that... is your hair the same color?" They doubled over, genuine giggles escaping. "Please tell me this was intentional."

I started laughing too. Suddenly we weren't two friends who'd been drifting apart all summer. We were just two idiots in the rain, one with terrible hair dye skills, one who couldn't use a toaster without supervision, and this cat who'd somehow brought us back together.

"Want help washing that out?" Kai asked. "I have that expensive shampoo my mom buys."

"Only if you help me name this disaster first."

"Lightning," they said. "Because apparently that's what it takes for us to hang out anymore."

The rain kept falling. We stood there, orange cat between us, and the distance between us didn't feel so far anymore.