Goldfish & Orange Hair

The goldfish wasn't even mine. It belonged to my little sister, Lena, who'd named it Admiral Bubblegum Third and insisted on having conversations with it every night before bed. But somehow, when Admiral Bubblegum Third went belly-up during third period, I was the one who had to deal with it.

Which is how I found myself at 7-Eleven with a dead goldfish in a Solo cup, buying orange hair dye because I'd just had my first real breakup and needed to reinvent myself immediately.

The clerk, a guy with eyebrow rings and a name tag that said 'SNAKE,' looked at me. 'Rough night?'

'You have no idea,' I said, clutching the cup like it contained nuclear launch codes instead of a deceased aquatic pet. 'My ex blocked me on everything, and I have to give my sister's fish a proper burial before she gets home from her sleepover.'

Snake nodded solemnly. 'Breakups hit different when you're sixteen. First time?'

'Yeah. He said I was 'too much.' Whatever that means.' I gestured at the orange dye. 'Figured if I'm gonna be too much, might as well go all in.'

We stood there for a moment, the fluorescent lights humming above us. Outside, rain drummed against the windows, the kind of heavy gray water that makes everything feel like a music video.

'Hey,' Snake said, 'there's a creek behind the store. People do stuff back there all the time. Funerals mostly. For pets, relationships, their middle school selves.' He handed me a plastic bag. 'On the house.'

I buried Admiral Bubblegum Third in the mud while rain plastered my hair to my forehead. The water in the creek rushed by, carrying little twigs and dead leaves, and I realized something sitting there in my soaked hoodie: some things just float downstream and you gotta let them. Goldfish. Ex-boyfriends who think you're 'too much.' The version of yourself that shrank for someone else's comfort.

My hair came out a neon tangerine—way brighter than the box promised. Lena cried when she saw it, but not because she hated it. 'You look like a superhero,' she said, 'but also like you might explode at any second.'

'Yeah,' I said, actually smiling for the first time in three days. 'That's kinda the point.'