Signal Lost

The coaxial cable sat coiled on my bedroom floor like a dead snake, its connector bent at an impossible angle from when Maya's backpack had slammed into it during our fight last night.

"Dude, just call her," Kae said, popping another sour candy. Their blue hair was slightly faded at the roots, like they'd been too busy with finals to touch it up. "She's been your best friend since seventh grade."

I stared at my phone. The WiFi from my neighbor's network (password: 'goku69420') flickered between one bar and zero. Maya hadn't replied to my texts in three days. Not since she'd dragged me to that 'entrepreneurship meeting' at the community center.

"It's not just that," I said, finally. "She's—she's changed. Everything's about 'financial freedom' and 'building her team' now. She tried to sell Kae that gross protein powder yesterday."

"That wasn't even good protein powder," Kae muttered. "Tasted like chalk." They hesitated. "Did you tell her it sounded like a pyramid scheme?"

"Yeah." I swallowed. "She said I was just too 'negative mindset' to understand success. She said real friends support each other's hustle."

The cable on the floor seemed to mock me. I'd promised to fix the WiFi for tonight's raid—our whole friend group was counting on me. But how could I patch things with Maya when she kept treating our friendship like another transaction?

"Maybe," Kae said quietly, "some cables just can't be reconnected. Like, sometimes the wire's stripped and it's not safe to use anymore."

I nodded slowly, my throat tight. They were right. Maya was chasing something that wasn't real—and in the process, she was losing what was.

I pulled out my phone and typed a message: 'If you ever want to just hang out and NOT talk about 'building your empire,' I'm here. No pressure. No sales pitch.' Then I blocked her TikTok notifications so I wouldn't have to see her posting about 'manifesting abundance' at 3 AM.

"Help me with this cable?" I asked Kae.

They grinned. "Bet. I've got electrical tape in my bag."