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Maya's hat was everything. A vintage dad cap she'd thrifted with her best friend Riley before everything went sideways, before Riley moved to Seattle and left Maya behind in their suburban nowhere-town. The hat sat backward on her head, armor against the world, a middle finger to conformity.

Until her dog Barnaby—a chaotic golden retriever mix who ate homework and destroyed dignity—knocked it off her head during what was supposed to be their viral TikTok moment. Maya had been dancing in her room, alone except for Barnaby and her iphone propped up on pillows, capturing what she hoped would be her big breakthrough moment. One million followers, one million people who saw something worth seeing in her.

Barnaby decided this was the moment to full-body tackle her.

The hat flew somewhere—maybe under the bed, maybe into the closet void where things went to die. Maya scrambled after it, her phone forgotten, Barnaby already moving on to chew something equally important.

"Barnaby, NO—"

Her heart stopped.

The iphone screen was cracked. A spiderweb of destruction across the only thing that tethered her to Riley, to the world, to whatever version of herself she was trying to become. Tears pricked her eyes because this was stupid, this was just a phone, but somehow it was everything.

Barnaby nudged her hand with his wet nose, whining like he understood, like he hadn't just ruined her entire life.

Then he did something weird.

He ducked under her bed and came out with the hat, dropping it carefully beside her destroyed phone like some kind of offering. Like he knew she needed both things to feel whole again.

Maya stared at him. Barnaby stared back, tail thumping against the floor like a metronome set to chaos.

"You're such a dork," she whispered, pulling the hat back over her hair. The phone could be replaced. The followers could wait. Some things, she realized, were already enough.

Barnaby licked her face, and Maya let herself laugh—really laugh—for the first time in weeks.