Screenshots from the Kitchen Floor

Maya's cat, Loki, had developed a concerning talent for chaos. Specifically, he'd decided that 11:43 PM on a Friday — the exact moment her crush Jason finally replied to her Instagram story — was the perfect time to knock her phone off the bed.

She'd spent twenty minutes curing that papaya her mom bought from the specialty grocery store, arranging it on the cute vintage plate like she was some aesthetic lifestyle influencer instead of an awkward sophomore who couldn't even make normal conversation with Jason at lunch. The papaya was supposed to signal sophistication. Worldliness. A girl who appreciated exotic flavors and had texture in her life.

Instead, Maya was currently army-crawling across her bedroom floor, Loki perched smugly on her desk like he owned the place, while her iPhone blinked from somewhere under her bed with three unread messages from Jason.

"nice papaya 😂 never tried that before"

"ur actually so fancy lol"

"we should hang this weekend?"

Maya's brain short-circuited. This was it. The moment she'd been overanalyzing for three weeks. But she couldn't even formulate a response because she was literally groping around in dust bunnies and failed friendships from middle school.

Loki let out this judgmental meow, like he knew exactly what kind of loser energy she was radiating.

"You're literally the worst," she whispered, finally spotting her phone's flashlight reflecting off something metallic. "I'm going to get a dog. A dog would respect my moment."

Her fingers closed around the phone just as Jason's typing bubble appeared again.

"unless papaya is ur weird flex lol jk"

Maya lay on her floor, papaya abandoned on her nightstand, cat judging her from above, and pressed send on her response: "haha yeah it's kinda an acquired taste but we can definitely hang 😊"

The typing bubble vanished. Then reappeared.

"sick. i'll pick u up tomorrow?

Loki chose that exact moment to knock the papaya plate onto the carpet.

Some things, Maya decided, were just universal. First crushes. Cats being jerks. And the fact that some moments were too ridiculous to be anything but real.