Orange Sunset Swiping

Maya's palms were sweating. Literally sweating. She wiped them on her denim shorts for the third time, clutching her cracked iPhone 11 like it was a lifeline. Or maybe a weapon.

"You're not actually gonna do it," said Liam, flopping onto the sand beside her. His hair was that perfect messy that probably took twenty minutes.

"I'm totally gonna do it." Maya opened Instagram, her thumb hovering over Jordan's profile. Jordan, with her perfectly aesthetic orange beach photos and her 2,847 followers and her life that looked like a movie montage.

The post was there, fresh from ten minutes ago: 'Sunset with the squad 🧡✨' underneath a shot that made the orange sky look like something you'd see on a motivational poster. Five people tagged. Maya wasn't one of them.

"She literally forgot I existed," Maya muttered. "I was right there. I'm wearing the orange shirt we bought together."

"Maybe she... didn't see you?" Liam tried.

"We were literally talking about palm trees, Liam. I made a joke. I joked about palm trees." Maya gestured at the silhouette behind them. "And then—snap, post, tag everyone else."

Her thumb slipped and accidentally liked the post. Unliked. Heart palpitations.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do." Maya sat up, determination in her voice. "I'm gonna post something so fire, so authentic, that Jordan will have to regret everything."

She positioned her iPhone to capture... what? The sand? Her knee? The moment felt performative and fake and suddenly she was tired of performing.

"You okay?" Liam asked softly.

Maya lowered her phone. The orange sky was fading to pink, and the palm trees were swaying in a way that felt like they were laughing at her whole teenage existential crisis.

"Yeah," she said, and actually meant it. "I think I'm done trying to make people see me."

She tossed her iPhone onto the towel and lay back, watching the stars come out one by one, untaggable and real.

"Good," said Liam, tossing her a cut-up orange from the cooler. "Because you're actually pretty cool when you're not being chronically online."

Maya caught it one-handed. Palm sticky, phone face-down, orange juice on her fingers. This was fine. This was enough.