Goldfish in the Rain

The carnival goldfish bag was sweating against my palm, the poor little orange fish swimming in circles like my thoughts. Maya's party started in ten minutes, and I was still three blocks away, my dad's old raincoat flapping ridiculously in the wind.

"Bro, you're actually gonna bring a FISH to a HOUSE PARTY?" Jordan had texted earlier. I could practically hear the judgment through the screen of my iPhone, even though he was the one who'd dared me to win it at the county fair last week. "Maya's gonna think you're such a dweeb."

He wasn't wrong. Maya Chen, with her perfect hair and her thousand Instagram followers, probably didn't have goldfish in plastic bags at her parties. She had vibe playlists and aesthetic charcuterie boards.

The first crack of lightning made me jump, the sky suddenly opening up. Water sluiced down the streets, turning everything to mirror and reflection. I started running, not even caring that my converse were already soaked through.

"YOUCOULDJUSTDROPITOFFATHOME" Jordan's new text read. "LMAO"

But something about this fish, this tiny living thing that depended on me for survival, made me keep going. Like maybe if I could keep it alive, I could prove I wasn't completely useless at this whole being-a-person thing.

I reached Maya's house breathless, hair plastered to my forehead, the goldfish bag clutched like a secret. The party noise spilled through the open door—laughing, music, the sound of people who knew exactly who they were supposed to be.

"Oh my god, is that a GOLDFISH?" Maya stood in the doorway, wearing the sequined dress I'd seen in her Instagram story. "That is literally the most random thing I've ever seen." She said it with this genuine smile, not the fake one she used for group photos.

"Yeah, I, uh, won it at the fair and didn't want to leave it alone in the rain..." My voice sounded small.

"Come inside! We're doing karaoke and everyone's terrible at it, you'll fit right in. We can put Goldie—I'm naming it Goldie—in the kitchen bowl."

Another flash of lightning illuminated the whole room, catching Maya's excited expression, and for the first time all night, I felt something like hope. Maybe the awkward pieces could fit together after all.