Goldfish & Ghosts

Maya's palm hovered over the glass bowl, sweat making her skin damp. Inside, a lone goldfish—she'd named him Toast because he was basic but somehow charming—swam in desperate little circles.

"You're overthinking it again," Jordan said from her bed, scrolling through her iPhone. Jordan made everything look effortless, from her perfectly messy bun to the way she could somehow carry full conversations while triple-texting.

"I'm not overthinking," Maya lied. She was totally overthinking. Tomorrow was the first day of sophomore year, and somehow she'd convinced herself that bringing Toast to Jordan's house for a 'sleepover' would make her seem more interesting. Less 'quiet girl who reads during lunch' and more 'eccentric girl with a pet fish.' It was working about as well as you'd expect.

Her dog, Buster, scratched at the closed door from the hallway. Buster was a chaotic good boy who'd already tried to eat Toast twice and somehow failed both times. "Maybe I should've gotten a cat," Maya muttered.

"Maya." Jordan finally looked up from her phone. "Toast isn't going to make you cool or weird or anything. You're already—you know—you. And that's literally fine."

The goldfish swam to the surface and opened his mouth like he was about to say something profound. Instead, a tiny bubble escaped.

Maya's phone buzzed. Her group chat from middle school was blowing up, probably planning something she wasn't invited to. Again. She looked at Toast, doing his endless laps in too-small space, and felt something weirdly familiar in it.

"You know what?" Maya said. "Toast isn't staying here."

"Thank god," Jordan said, "because my mom would actually lose it."

But that wasn't what Maya meant. She grabbed the fishbowl, marched to the backyard, and found the old fountain that hadn't worked since like, forever. Toast swam into his new kingdom, instantly doubling his territory.

"Wait," Jordan said, appearing in the doorway with Buster at her heels. "Did you just liberate a fish?"

"He needed room to grow," Maya said, and it was the truest thing she'd said all day. "So do I."

Jordan grinned. "Fair. But we are absolutely posting this."

As Buster discovered he could finally get closer to Toast without falling in, Maya's iPhone lit up with a new notification. This time, she didn't check it. Some things were better left unread.