Goldfish Memory & Last Night's Pizza

Maya's palms were sweating so bad she could practically wring them out. Three texts from Kai sat on her lock screen—u coming??—and she was still standing outside Jordan's house like a total weirdo.

"You good?"

She jumped. It was Alex, Jordan's older brother, holding the craziest-looking dog she'd ever seen. It had one ear that stood up and one that flopped down, and it was wearing a tiny bandana.

"Yeah. Just, you know." Maya gestured vaguely at everything.

"First party?" Alex grinned. "Don't overthink it. Everyone's just pretending they know what they're doing." He opened the door. "Also, watch out for the cable situation in the living room. Someone tripped over the setup earlier and took out an entire speaker."

Inside, bass thumped through the floorboards. People were sprawled everywhere—on the couch, on the floor, on the porch outside. Maya spotted Kai near the food table, laughing at something Jordan was saying. Her stomach did that awful flip-flop thing.

She made her way over, hyper-aware of how she was walking. Did her arms look weird? Was she walking too stiffly?

"Maya!" Kai's face lit up. "You made it!"

"Hey!" she managed, and immediately felt like her voice sounded weird. Too high? Too loud?

"Check this out." Jordan pointed at a tiny goldfish bowl on the counter. "My parents got this fish yesterday. They named it Gil. I'm supposed to feed it, but honestly I think it's already dead?"

Maya peered into the bowl. The fish was doing absolutely nothing.

"That's just how fish are, bro," someone said.

"No, seriously. It hasn't moved in like twenty minutes."

"It's probably asleep?"

"Fish don't sleep that dramatically."

Maya found herself laughing along with everyone, the knot in her chest loosening just a little. This was okay. She could do this.

Then someone shouted, "BEAR PIG!" and suddenly Alex's dog came sprinting through the room, knocking into people's legs, sending the goldfish bowl rocking ominously.

Everyone lost it. Someone started quoting that old South Park bit. Kai was doubled over laughing, and Maya caught his eye and he smiled at her like she was actually part of this moment, not just watching from the edges.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket—probably her mom asking where she was. She'd deal with it later.

For right now, she just wanted to stay here, in this loud, messy, perfect moment where she finally felt like she belonged.