Goldfish Window

Maya pressed her face against the glass, watching Fin swim in lazy circles. Her goldfish was living his best life—no social anxiety, no fear of missing out, just water and flakes and the occasional castle swim-through.

If only.

Her phone buzzed again. Another group chat blowout that she'd been excluded from. The notifications were like digital paper cuts—tiny, stinging, constantly reminding her that she was on the outside looking in.

"You're literally playing spy now," she muttered to herself, scrolling through Jake's Instagram story for the third time that hour. He was at Tyler's house, everyone there except her. The video showed them laughing, someone's feet up on a coffee table, Netflix playing on the TV behind them.

Netflix. Right. The thing she couldn't join because her parents still refused to upgrade their basic cable package. Nothing says 'I'm financially stable' like telling your teenage daughter she can't hang because she doesn't have the streaming service everyone's watching.

"You good?" her brother asked, leaning against her doorframe. "You've been in here all day."

"Fine," she snapped. "Just doing homework."

He raised an eyebrow. "While stalking Jake's story? Real subtle."

Maya threw her phone onto her bed. "Whatever. Like you'd get it."

"Actually, I would." He stepped into the room, dropping onto the floor beside her fish tank. "Remember when I got left out of Alex's birthday thing? I spent the whole weekend obsessing over it. Then I realized—they're not doing it to hurt me. They're just being dumb teenagers who forgot."

"They didn't forget," Maya said. "They literally talked about it in front of me yesterday."

"So text them. Ask what's up tomorrow. Or show up. Worst they can say is no."

Fin swam to the front of his tank, bubbles rising from his mouth.

"See? Even Fin thinks you should get over yourself," her brother said, standing up. "Also, Mom said we can finally upgrade the cable if you stop moping."

Maya waited until he closed the door before grabbing her phone. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard. The message felt stupid even as she typed it: *hey what's everyone doing tomorrow?*

The three dots appeared immediately. Then: *movie night at mine. You in?*

Maya grinned, texting back before she could second-guess herself. *always.*