Goldfish Goodbye

Maya's phone buzzed with three texts from Jordan: *party @ 8. u coming??*

She stared at her reflection, checking for the third time. The spinach from dinner wasn't stuck in her teeth. Good. Her cat, Barnaby, wound around her ankles, purring like he knew she was about to do something incredibly stupid.

"You're not helping," she told him, slipping on her worn Converses.

The party was already in full swing when she arrived. Someone's basement, LEDs pulsing, the smell of cheap body spray and something fruity. Maya spotted Jordan immediately—laughing with that group that always sat together at lunch, the ones who made everything look effortless.

She hovered by the snack table, clutching a red solo cup like it was a lifeline. *Just go over there,* she told herself. *Say hey. It's not that deep.*

"Hey, Maya!" Jordan appeared beside her, holding—bizarrely—a small plastic bag with a goldfish swimming inside. Carnival prize style. "Saved you from my man Tyler's terrible music."

Her brain short-circuited. "Is that... a goldfish?"

"His name is Chad." Jordan grinned. "Won him at the birthday fair last week. My mom said I had to rehome him by tonight or she's flushing him."

"You're... rehoming a fish? At a party?"

"Desperate times." Jordan's eyes dropped to her cup. "You want him?"

Maya stared at Chad the goldfish, swimming in confused circles, completely unaware that his entire existence was being negotiated between two awkward teenagers who'd barely spoken since seventh period English.

"Sure," she heard herself say. "Why not."

They ended up on the back porch, sharing earbuds and watching Chad adjust to his new temporary home in a mixing bowl Jordan liberated from the kitchen. The spring air was cool, and for the first time all night, Maya's chest didn't feel tight.

"My cat's gonna lose his mind," she said, and Jordan laughed—really laughed, head tipped back, the kind of laugh that made something in her stomach flip.

"Barnaby? From your Instagram?"

Maya froze. "You follow me?"

Jordan looked away, suddenly fascinated by the goldfish. "I mean. Yeah. Sometimes."

The silence wasn't uncomfortable anymore. It was electric.

"I'll walk you home?" Jordan asked. "Chad needs a proper introduction to Barnaby anyway."

"Yeah," Maya said, feeling something bright and terrifying expand in her chest. "I'd like that."

Later, she'd remember this as the night everything changed—not with some grand gesture, but with a plastic bag, a confused fish, and someone who noticed her enough to remember her cat's name.