Running with the Bull

I was literally drowning in Algebra II when my phone buzzed. 'U up?' from Marcus. Obviously I wasn't up - it was 11 PM on a Tuesday and I'd been staring at quadratic equations until my brain felt like mush. But I tapped back anyway. 'Yeah what's up'

'Catfished this guy on Tinder. He's sending me money now.'

My stomach did that thing where it simultaneously drops and flips. Marcus had been talking about this pyramid scheme he'd joined - some 'financial empowerment' group that was definitely sketchy. I'd been telling him for weeks it sounded like a cult, but what did I know? I was just the boring friend who actually did her homework.

'Bro that's stealing' I typed.

'It's not stealing if they're offering??' came the reply, followed by three skull emojis.

I called him immediately. He answered on the fourth ring, sounding slightly out of breath. 'You're actually running with this bullcrap?'

There was a pause. Then, 'I'm outside your house.'

I looked out my window. Sure enough, Marcus's Honda Civic was parked under the streetlamp, engine idling. The bull in his china shop routine was getting old.

I grabbed my hoodie and slipped out, grounding myself for whatever chaos he'd dragged me into this time. Marcus was already leaning against his car, looking uncharacteristically serious. His cat - the stray he'd secretly been feeding for months - was curled on his hood like it owned the place.

'I'm done, Maya,' he said quietly. 'I broke it off with the scheme people. They wanted me to recruit you next.'

I waited. The night air felt thick with everything we weren't saying.

'I couldn't do it,' he continued, scratching behind the cat's ears. 'Not to you.'

The pyramid of lies collapsed between us, leaving something else in its wake. Not easier, but real.

'Wendy's run?' I asked.

'Always.'

We left his cat sleeping on the car, both running toward something simpler - frosties at midnight, no schemes, just us and the neon lights of the only place open in our suburban wasteland.