Location Services Always On

Maya's iPhone buzzed with the third notification from her mom in twenty minutes: 'U ok? Haven't moved in 45 mins.' She groaned and shoved it deeper into her hoodie pocket. At sixteen, she shouldn't have to explain that sitting on a park bench wasn't a cry for help.

The real problem wasn't that her mom cared. It was that she cared like a spy agency. Location sharing, screen time limits, those ridiculous 'pick up when I call' rules that made Maya feel like she was twelve instead of almost-adult. Last week she'd caught her mom watching her Snapchat map like it was breaking news.

'So, you gonna tell me what's actually wrong?' Leo's voice made her jump. He dropped onto the bench beside her, skateboarding under one arm, that effortlessly cool senior energy that still made her stomach do that annoying flip thing.

'Nothing. Just... my mom's being extra again.' Maya hesitated. 'She thinks I'm at your house studying.'

Leo laughed. 'Bro, my mom thinks I'm at the library. Meanwhile I'm literally failing pre-calc.' He stretched his arms behind his head. 'Parents are built different. My dad still tries to track me through Find My Friends even though I turned it off like three years ago.'

'My mom would actually lose it,' Maya said. 'Last time I went offline for two hours, she called my school, my dance studio, AND my grandmother.' She shifted, and something soft pressed against her side—Mr. Bearbuttons, the stuffed bear she'd somehow managed to keep since second grade without anyone noticing. He lived in her backpack now, a secret witness to her life.

Leo's phone chimed. He didn't even look at it. 'You know what I figured out? Parents track us because they're scared we're growing up and they can't protect us anymore. But that's their problem, not ours.'

Maya looked at him. 'Since when are you suddenly wise?'

'I'm not,' he said, grinning. 'I read it in a TikTok comment.' Then, more quietly: 'But I think it's true. My dad's been weird since I got my license. Like, what, he thinks I'm gonna crash into the sun?'

'Same energy,' Maya said, feeling lighter. 'My mom acts like every unsupervised hour is basically me walking into traffic.'

Her phone buzzed again. Without thinking, she pulled it out.

Mom: I know you're not at Leo's. I called his mom.

Maya stared at it, then showed Leo. He winced. 'Oof. Busted.'

'So busted,' she agreed. But then she did something she'd never done before—she turned off her location services. Just for an hour. Just to see what it felt like.

'Scary, right?' Leo said, like he understood.

'Terrifying,' she admitted. But it felt like something else too. Like maybe she was finally starting to figure out who she was when nobody was watching.