Orange Crush & Lightning Scars

My **dog** Moose stared at me from the doorway like I'd betrayed him. Which, fair. I looked like a traffic cone.

"You're not helping," I told him.

Moose let out this dramatic huff and trotted away. Traitor.

The bathroom mirror showed exactly what I'd done to myself: bright **orange** hair. Orange Crush hair. Cheez-It hair. Whatever-midlife-crisis-bieber-had-that-one-time hair. My hands were stained too, tinged with rebellion and box dye from the CVS run I'd made twenty-three decisions about earlier.

Somewhere downstairs, my parents were having their usual Thursday argument about whether we were spending too much on **cat** food. Lucifer (named by my goth phase, aged 13) was definitely fine on the budget front. He was currently asleep on my bed, unbothered by my identity crisis.

Then came the text.

*party at jax's. u coming?*

I stared at my phone. Jax's parties were legendary. Everyone who was anyone went. Including Maya, who I'd been lowkey crushing on since September, when she'd complimented my handwriting in English and my entire brain had short-circuited.

Outside, **lightning** cracked the sky open. Purple-white scars across the darkness. Perfect. Absolutely cinematic timing for my what-am-I-doing-with-my-life spiral.

*maybe,* I typed back. Then deleted it. *idk* deleted that too.

The old me would've deleted the message, stayed home, and waited for the orange to wash out in three weeks. The me in third period who'd sat behind Maya and listened to her talk about how people were too scared to be themselves—the me who'd thought about it for three days straight—grabbed a hoodie.

My phone buzzed again. *its gonna be lame without u*

I was already **running** down the stairs before I could talk myself out of it. Moose perked up, thinking we were going on an adventure, then flopped back down when he saw my shoes. The orange disaster in the mirror followed me out the door, a walking testament to the fact that sometimes, you have to light yourself on **lightning** just to feel something real.