The Bear in the Bathroom

Maya's night was going straight to hell, and it was only 10 PM.

She'd spent two hours curling her hair, three stress-eating variations of chips, and approximately forty-seven seconds deciding whether to post a thirst trap or a casual aesthetic shot on Instagram. Now here she was: locked in a bathroom at Tyler's house party while her iphone buzzed with increasingly desperate texts from Sierra.

'WHERE R U' 'he's asking abt u' 'DON'T BE AWKWARD'

Maya groaned and splashed cold water on her face. The mirror reflected everything she hated: the foundation already melting off, the way her eyes looked weirdly asymmetrical, the underlying vibes of someone who'd never had a boyfriend despite being sixteen.

Then she heard it. A cat meowing. From inside the wall.

"What the fu—"

Lightning flashed through the tiny window, illuminating everything in a strobe-light horror show. The meowing got louder. Maya's heart raced. Was there a cat trapped in the walls? Was she hallucinating? She needed Sierra. She needed air. She needed to not be the girl who discovered a secret cat during a house party and had a meltdown.

She yanked the door open and—

"What the HELL."

A full-grown bear stood in Tyler's hallway. Wearing a varsity jacket. Holding a red solo cup.

Maya screamed. The bear's head fell off.

"Yo, my bad!" It was Justin from junior year, sweating through his bear costume. "This thing has zero peripheral vision."

"Why are you dressed as a bear?" Maya's voice came out two octaves higher than normal.

"Tyler's rich dad has this mascot costume from when he owned that sports team," Justin said, like this explained anything. "Wanna hit this?"

He offered her the cup. Behind him, Sierra appeared, eyes wide, phone already recording. "Maya. WHAT is happening."

"Justin's a bear," Maya said. "And I think there's a cat trapped in the bathroom wall."

"There's WHAT?"

By midnight, the whole party was gathered around the bathroom wall. Tyler's dad was called. A cat named Cheeto was rescued from a hole behind the sink. Maya accidentally became a legend. Tyler thought her chaos energy was hot. And Justin the bear gave her his number.

Some nights went exactly nowhere. And some nights you found a cat, befriended a bear, and accidentally started your first situationship. Maya could work with that.