Orange Crush Syndrome

The vitamin gummy hit the back of my throat with that familiar artificial orange tang—my fourth one of the morning because stress-eating was basically a sport now. Maya was going to notice I'd raided her stash, but honestly, that felt like the least of my problems right now.

Her dog, Buster, sat on my bed giving me that judgmental look dogs mastered around the same time humans learned to feel inadequate. The orange fur on his muzzle (from said vitamins) made him look like he'd gone to town on a traffic cone.

"You're not helping," I told him. He flopped over, because of course he did.

The group chat was blowing up. Everyone at school was apparently living their best lives while I was here, stressing about tryouts for the fall play and simultaneously ruining my sister's supplement collection. Freshman year was supposed to be this whole new chapter, right? Instead, it felt like I'd been cast as an extra in someone else's movie.

My phone lit up. Marcus: u coming to jayden's or??

Stomach twist. Jayden's house party was the social event of the week, and I'd been debating going for approximately three days. The FOMO was real, but so was the social battery drain.

Buster let out this dramatic sigh like he understood my entire existential crisis.

"Okay, fine," I said. "You're right. I'm overthinking it."

I grabbed my hoodie, the one with the mysterious orange stain on the sleeve from last week's lunch disaster, and stuffed my pockets with another two vitamin gummies because I had already committed to this crime.

"Watch the house," I told Buster. "And if Maya asks, we never had this conversation."

He just closed his eyes, because that was the level of respect I commanded in this household.

As I walked toward Jayden's, the orange sunset hitting everything in that perfect golden-hour way, I realized something: nobody had it figured out. Marcus was probably overthinking it too. The vitamin deficiency might have been imaginary, but the nervous energy was absolutely real.

Tonight might be awkward. I might say something weird. Someone would definitely bring up that embarrassing moment from lunch.

But at least I wasn't alone in this.

And at least I'd had enough vitamin C to last me through whatever social landmines awaited.