Goldfish & Gravity

The plastic bag sloshed against my thigh as I followed Kai through the swirling lights of the county fair. Inside, my carnival prize — a majestic orange goldfish I'd dubbed Neptune — swam in tiny, terrified circles.

"You're actually gonna ride it?" Kai asked, gesturing toward the mechanical bull that looked less like animal and more like death covered in brown vinyl.

"Neptune believes in me," I said, though my palms were already sweating. "He's watching from his baggy castle."

Kai snorted. "Your goldfish has a three-second memory, Maya. He forgot you existed three seconds ago."

But Kai didn't know about the pact I'd made with the universe. If I could last eight seconds on that bucking machine, maybe I'd finally stop being the girl who faded into classroom walls. The one who never spoke up. The one who let people cut in line, steal her thunder, take her peace.

"Next up!" the operator bellowed. His cowboy hat had seen better decades.

I handed Neptune to Kai. "If I die, give him a proper funeral."

"You're not gonna die," they said, but their eyes said maybe.

I climbed on. The vinyl smelled like sweat and courage and every other teenager who'd sat here before me, praying for eight seconds of glory.

The operator's voice crackled through the speakers. "Hold on tight, 'cause here we — "

The bull exploded beneath me.

My world became a centrifuge of neon lights and screaming muscles. I wasn't thinking about that girl who never spoke up anymore. I wasn't thinking about anything except staying, gripping, breathing. Each second stretched thick and golden as summer honey.

One. Two. The crowd roared. Three. Four. Kai cheered louder than anyone. Five. Six. My arms screamed. Seven. Eight.

The bull stopped.

I slid off, legs trembling, something electric and unfamiliar coursing through my veins. For the first time in forever, I didn't feel like background noise.

Kai handed back Neptune. His plastic castle swirled with motion, just like me.

"Eight seconds," they said, grinning. "Not bad, not bad."

"Not bad?" I straightened my spine, goldfish and friend and gravity suddenly making perfect sense. "Watch me do ten next time."