Market Crash at the Mall

The text came through at 3:47 PM on a Tuesday, right in the middle of Mr. Henderson's endless lecture about supply and demand. My iphone buzzed in my pocket like a guilty conscience.

u coming?? jake's party starts at 7 - Maya

I stared at the screen. Jake's parents were out of town. The whole grade would be there. And I'd promised Maya I'd show.

But then there was the other thing. The reason my hands had been shaking all morning. The reason I'd been refreshing that one app under my desk every three minutes since homeroom.

My crypto portfolio was down 47%.

I'd gone all in on what the forums called a "sure thing" — a memecoin featuring a cartoon bull with laser eyes. The market had turned. The bears were winning. And by bears, I meant the actual bear market, not the mascot costume I had to wear for every home game.

"Everything okay, Leo?" Mr. Henderson asked, and twenty heads turned my way.

"Fine," I squeaked. My face burned. Classic Leo — overthinking everything, paralyzed by choices that shouldn't even be hard.

The final bell couldn't ring fast enough. I bolted to my locker, already pulling up the trading app. Maybe I could still salvage this. Maybe if I moved everything into that water purification startup everyone was hyping on Discord—

"Yo, Earth to Leo."

Maya leaned against the locker next to mine, flipping her hair exactly the way she did when she wanted something. "Jake's party. You're still coming, right?"

I looked at my phone. Then at Maya. Then at my reflection in the locker door — some kid who'd spent his life savings on internet money because he wanted to seem interesting.

"Actually," I said, "I can't."

Maya's eyebrows shot up. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. I, uh, promised my sister I'd help with... stuff."

The lie tasted like water from a school fountain — lukewarm and vaguely metallic. But it worked. Maya shrugged and walked off toward the parking lot.

I watched her go, then did something I hadn't done in months: I opened my mom's contact and pressed call.

"Hey honey, everything okay?"

"Mom," I said, my voice cracking. "I think I messed up."

The market could wait. Maya could wait. Jake's party would probably suck anyway. For once, Leo wasn't going to chase the bull. He was going to sit with the bears and finally admit he didn't know what he was doing.

And that felt like the bravest thing I'd done all year.