Goldfish in the Storm

Maya pressed her back against the basement wall, heart doing that stupid fluttery thing it always did when Jake was within a twenty-foot radius. She was basically a professional spy at this point — she'd spent the last hour "casually" positioning herself within earshot while pretending to be deeply interested in the poster of waves on the wall.

"Stop being weird, Maya," she muttered. Jake was over by the makeshift dance floor, probably still dating Chloe because obviously the universe hated her.

Then she saw it: a glass bowl on a shelf, with a single orange goldfish staring back at her. Its mouth opened and closed like it was saying something important.

"Rough night?" A voice behind her made her jump.

She spun around. Jake. Standing there. Looking at her.

"I was just — the fish," Maya gestured wildly. "He seems deep."

Jake laughed, and it was better than the remix blasting upstairs. "His name is Bubbles. My sister won him at the carnival last week and then decided she's "over fish" now."

"Bubbles is a terrible name."

"Right? That's like naming a dog Dog."

Somewhere above, lightning struck close enough that the basement lights flickered. Rain pounded against the tiny window like the sky was having a meltdown.

"Do you ever feel like..." Maya hesitated, then went for it because why not, she was already embarrassing herself. "Like everyone else got the manual on how to do high school and you're just winging it?"

Jake looked at Bubbles, then at her. "Every single day."

"Really? Because you seem like you have it together."

"I have a fish that I don't know how to take care of and I just spent twenty minutes hiding in the basement from a party I'm supposedly hosting."

They stood there as thunder rattled the foundation, and Maya realized she wasn't the only one pretending.

"Want help figuring out Bubbles?" she offered.

"Only if you help me figure out how to talk to you without being awkward."

Maya felt something like electricity, but the good kind. The goldfish swam to the front of his bowl and stared at them like he knew something they didn't.

"Deal," she said.

Outside, the storm kept going. Inside, two people stopped spinning alone in the water.