Friday Night Vitamin Light

Maya smoothed the oversized neon bucket hat for the fifteenth time, checking her reflection in the bathroom mirror. The hat was ridiculous, borderline criminal, but it was what everyone was wearing at Northwood High. If you wanted to exist in the hallway ecosystem, you needed the hat. Period.

Her phone buzzed. Jada: u coming??? the party starts at 9 and Tyler's gonna be there 😏

Maya's stomach did that thing it always did when Tyler was mentioned — like someone had replaced her insides with those weird vitamin gummies her mom made her take every morning. The ones that supposedly helped with "stress and skin" but mostly just tasted like artificial strawberry despair.

"I'm on my way," Maya typed back, grabbing her bag. Inside, next to her lip gloss and emergency hair tie, sat the vitamin bottle. She'd stopped taking them weeks ago, too embarrassed to admit she was still that girl — the one who cared about things like collagen production and stress management while everyone else was busy being effortlessly cool.

The party was already chaos when she arrived. Music rattled the windows, people were spilling onto the lawn, and there, by the makeshift dance floor, was Jada wearing a different neon hat — pink, not yellow like Maya's. They'd bought them together as a joke, but Jada actually made it look good. Jada made everything look good.

"FINALLY," Jada yelled over the music, grabbing Maya's arm. "Tyler's literally asking about you."

"What?" Maya's voice squeaked. "Since when does Tyler know I exist?"

"Since you started sitting at our table at lunch, dummy. You know he thinks you're funny, right?"

Maya's face burned. The hat suddenly felt suffocating, like she was wearing a costume of someone else's life.

"I have to tell you something," Maya said, pulling Jada toward the kitchen. "I'm not — I'm not really this person. The hat, the vibe, I'm just trying to fit in and I suck at it and —"

"Whoa, chill." Jada opened the fridge and pulled out two sodas. "You think I don't know that? You think any of us actually feel confident? We're all just guessing, Maya."

"But you're — you're you."

"I'm a mess," Jada laughed. "Last week I cried in the bathroom because I forgot a vocabulary word. We're all pretending." She handed Maya a soda. "That's kinda the point. Having a friend means you don't have to pretend alone."

Maya exhaled, something loosening in her chest. The hat still felt ridiculous, but maybe that was okay. Maybe being ridiculous together was better than being perfect alone.

"You want to know something embarrassing?" Maya asked. "I still take those stupid vitamins my mom buys. The stress ones."

Jada grinned. "Same. I hide mine in my gym bag so my roommates don't see."

They stood there in the kitchen, neon hats and all, and for the first time all night, Maya didn't feel like she was performing. She was just a girl in a stupid hat, talking to her friend, while somewhere Tyler was probably wondering where she was. And honestly? That was enough.