Goldfish Lightning

Maya's iPhone 13 lay shattered on her bedroom floor, victim of an accidental collision with her little brother's nerf gun. Three days without her phone. Three days of TikTok FOMO, unread Group Me messages, and the creeping realization that her entire social life lived in that sleek black rectangle.

Her mom, queen of misplaced optimism, had handed her a clear plastic bag from the pet store earlier that evening. "Since you're grounded from screens anyway, at least keep Goldie alive."

Now Maya sat cross-legged on her bed, watching the orange goldfish circle its bowl in hypnotic loops. The storm outside raged, lightning flashing through her window like strobe lights at the homecoming dance she'd skipped last month.

A notification buzzed from her old emergency phone—a cracked iPhone 8 her dad kept in a drawer. Sasha had posted something. Sasha, whose Instagram stories Maya had been mentally curating responses to for seventy-two hours.

Maya reached for the old phone with shaking fingers. The screen illuminated her room with a ghostly blue glow as she tapped through the lock screen and opened Instagram.

There it was. A photo of Sasha's new goldfish, captioned: "Little guy gets me more than half the people at school tbh."

Maya stared at the post, then at her own fish swimming in endless circles. Another lightning bolt cracked the sky, illuminating everything in a split second of clarity—like the universe was practically screaming at her.

She'd been the one trying so hard to fit into Sasha's world, to become whoever Sasha needed her to be that week. Meanwhile, Sasha was at home alone on a Friday night, talking to a fish.

The old phone pinged again. A DM from Sasha: "You alive? Haven't seen you on my feed in three days. Weirdly quiet without your notifications blowing up my phone."

Maya typed and deleted three different responses before finally writing: "Yeah. Been busy. With my fish."

She set down the phone and watched Goldie dart happily around his bowl. The lightning storm had moved on, leaving behind that clean, washed-air feeling that only comes after rain. Maybe taking a break from being constantly connected wasn't the worst thing. Maybe she'd figure out who she was when nobody was watching.

At the very least, she and Goldie were vibing. And that was enough for now.