Screen Light Secrets

Maya lay in darkness at 2 AM, the blue glow of her iPhone illuminating her face like a ghostly spotlight. She'd been doing it again — spying on Chloe's Instagram stories.

They used to be best friends, attached at the hip since seventh grade. But then high school happened. Chloe joined the popular crowd, started dating Jake (theJake), and somehow Maya became the person she used to sit with at lunch when nobody else was around.

Now Maya was basically a professional social media stalker. She knew Chloe's coffee order, her new friends' names, that she'd dyed her hair highlights-blonde last weekend. Pathetic? Maybe. Necessary? Unfortunately yes.

Her thumb hovered over Chloe's latest post — a group photo at some party Maya wasn't invited to. Everyone looked so shiny and perfect, like they'd been filtered into existence. Meanwhile Maya felt like a straight-up zombie, dark circles under her eyes from another night of obsessive scrolling, brain dead from comparing her behind-the-scenes to everyone else's highlight reel.

Then her notification pinged.

Chloe had messaged her.

*Hey. Are you up?*

Maya's heart did that stupid flutter thing. *Yeah*

*I saw you liked my story. Like, five minutes after I posted. Again. At 2 AM. You okay?*

Maya froze. She'd been caught. Not just spying — being weirdly intense about it.

*Sorry* she typed, wanting to disappear through her mattress.

*No I mean... do you want to come over? My parents are asleep. I have snacks*

Maya stared at her iPhone screen. This wasn't how things went in her head. In her mental rehearsals, Chloe either mocked her or ignored her forever. Not invited her over at 2 AM like nothing had changed.

*Be there in 10*

And just like that, Maya wasn't a zombie anymore. She was just a girl walking to her best friend's house in the middle of the night, carrying leftover Halloween candy and the tiny hope that maybe — just maybe — things didn't have to stay broken forever.