The Backup Friend

Maya dropped onto Sophie's bed, scrolling through her own iPhone while waiting for her best friend to finish showering. Sophie's house always smelled like vanilla and old books, and Maya felt comfortable here in a way she didn't anywhere else.

Her phone died. Of course.

"Soph, can I borrow your charger?"

"Check my nightstand!" Sophie called from the bathroom.

Maya rummaged through the drawer and found something unexpected — an ancient iPhone, the kind from middle school, attached to a weird cable she'd never seen. Something about it made her curious. Sophie never talked about her old phones.

Maya pressed the power button. It turned on.

Inside, she found hundreds of voice memos, all titled with dates from three years ago. Her finger hovered over the most recent one from the summer they'd met.

"I saw Maya at lunch today," Sophie's younger voice crackled through the speaker. "She's so confident. I wish I could be like that. I'm going to try to talk to her tomorrow."

Maya felt weird. Like she was spying on something private.

She kept listening.

"Maya actually talked to me today! She's so nice. I can't believe she wants to be friends with me."

"Maya has no idea how cool she is. Like, she thinks she's awkward, but everyone wants to be around her."

Maya's chest got tight. She'd spent all of high school feeling like the awkward friend, the side character in Sophie's confident protagonist story. All this time, Sophie had seen her completely differently.

The bathroom door opened.

"What are you listening to?" Sophie stood in the doorway, towel-drying her hair.

Maya held up the old iPhone. "I feel like I was spying on you."

Sophie's face turned bright red. "Oh my god. Please delete those."

"No, Soph." Maya sat up. "You thought I was the confident one?"

"You were!" Sophie laughed. "You still are."

"I thought that was you."

They stared at each other, then started laughing.

"We're both messes," Maya said. "But at least we're messes together."

"Best friends," Sophie grinned. "Now give me my ancient iPhone back before you find my fanfic phase."

Maya handed it over, feeling lighter somehow. It was nice, being seen — really seen — by someone who thought you were better than you thought you were.