Electric Papaya

Maya's aunt said the cat only ate papaya. Specifically, the papaya had to be cut into cubes exactly one inch across, or Barnaby would turn his nose up and stare at you with those judgy orange eyes like you'd personally failed at existence.

Now Maya was stuck housesitting, alone on a Friday night, cubing tropical fruit while her friends were at Tyler's party without her. She'd bailed last minute with a vague "family thing" excuse, but the truth was simpler: parties gave her hives. All that performing, trying to look chill, pretending she understood TikTok trends she'd never seen. Exhausting.

The first lightning struck somewhere close enough that the kitchen windows rattled. Then came the text from Sofia: are you coming??? tyler asked about you THREE TIMES

Maya's thumb hovered over the screen. Then:

"Can't. Barnaby needs his papaya cubes."

"WHAT. Send pic or it didn't happen."

Maya snapped a photo of the absurdly particular fruit arrangement next to the cat's judgmental face. Hit send.

"omg wtf is wrong with that cat"

"be right there"

Maya stared at her phone. WHAT.

Twenty minutes later, Sofia was at the door with rain-flattened hair and two pizzas, shaking off her jacket like a wet dog. "I wanna witness this. Also, Tyler's playlist was ass and I needed an out."

They sat on the kitchen floor feeding Barnaby papaya cubes in the flickering light of another storm rolling through. Outside, lightning fractured the sky purple-white, illuminating everything in stark flash-photography moments.

"So," Sofia said, watching the cat daintily select his third cube. "You gonna tell me why you've been weird lately, or am I gonna have to guess?"

Maya's stomach did that uncomfortable electricity thing. "I'm just... tired of pretending."

"Pretending what?"

"That I'm normal. That I know what I'm doing. That papaya cubes for cats isn't, like, the highlight of my week."

Sofia laughed. "Girl. I came to your house in the middle of a thunderstorm to watch a cat eat fruit. What does that say about me?"

Maya smiled. Something loosened in her chest.

"Maybe we're both weird," Sofia said, bumping her shoulder. "Maybe that's the whole point."

Another lightning flash, and in that second of brightness, Maya caught Sofia's gaze and saw something there that made her heart do that electricity thing again—except this time, it wasn't uncomfortable at all.

"Yeah," Maya said softly. "Maybe."