Offline Mode

Maya's thumb hovered over the screen, heart doing that weird flutter thing it always did when she opened Instagram. There it was — another group photo from Jessica's party that everyone went to except her. Her so-called best friend Sarah had posted it, laughing with that new girl who'd somehow taken over their entire friend group in like, two weeks flat.

Her iPhone buzzed with another notification — probably someone else asking why she wasn't there. Maya threw the phone onto her bed like it was radioactive. Whatever.

She grabbed the leash from the hook by the door. Mrs. Henderson's golden retriever, Buster, needed walking, and honestly? She needed the excuse to leave her room.

The evening air hit her face as she stepped outside, phone tucked deep in her pocket where it couldn't hurt her. Buster did his excited spin thing, practically smiling at her with that goofy dog grin that made zero sense but somehow made everything feel less terrible.

"You're better than people, Buster," she muttered, watching him sniff someone's fence like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

She wasn't paying attention to where she was going — just letting Buster lead — when she literally crashed into someone coming around the corner.

"Oh my god, I'm so — "

"Whoa, no worries, I wasn't — "

They both stopped.

It was Lucas from her history class. The quiet one who sat in the back and drew dragons in his notebook. The one she'd never actually talked to, not once, even though they'd been in school together since sixth grade.

His phone was on the ground, screen cracked but still glowing with what looked like a half-finished digital painting.

"That's... actually really good," Maya said, genuine.

Lucas looked surprised. Like, genuinely surprised that anyone noticed. "Thanks. I don't really show people."

"Why not?"

He shrugged, jamming his hands in his pockets. "I don't know. People either think it's weird or they're just being nice, you know?"

Something in Maya's chest shifted. "Yeah. I actually do know."

They ended up sitting on a bench for twenty minutes, Buster sprawled across both their shoes, while Lucas showed her his portfolio and Maya admitted that she secretly wrote fanfiction but told everyone it was for an English assignment. It was the most real conversation she'd had in months.

By the time she walked home, Maya's iPhone battery had died. And for the first time in forever, she didn't even care.