The Bear, The Cable, and The Vitamin Disaster

The vitamin gummies sat heavy in my stomach as I sat cross-legged on Jake's carpet, surrounded by half the sophomore class. Mom swore these "skin-clearing" supplements were miracle workers, but I'd been taking them for three weeks and my forehead still looked like a topographic map of bad decisions.

"Dude, is your brain still buffering?" Jake called out, waving the HDMI cable like a lasso while his TV screen remained stubbornly black.

The room erupted in groans. We were supposed to be watching the season finale, and Netflix was choosing NOW to buffer us into oblivion. I caught Jake's eye across the room—his hair was messy in that way that made my stomach do backflips, and he was wearing that faded flannel shirt that I'd definitely imagined him wearing in approximately seventeen daydream scenarios.

"I got this," Jake said, crawling behind the TV stand. His little sister's stuffed bear—a grinning thing wearing a rainbow tie-dye shirt—was perched on top of the entertainment center like it was judging all of us.

My phone buzzed. Unknown number. "Is this Maya? Jake left his hoodie in your locker last week. -Sarah"

My face burned. Sarah was his ex. Why did she have my number? And more importantly, why was Jake telling people about hoodie-gate? Was he laughing about it with her?

Meanwhile, Jake reemerged from cable management victory. "Fixed! The HDMI cable was just loose in port 3."

The episode started, but I couldn't focus. I kept thinking about Sarah's text, and the fact that I'd been obsessing over someone who might not even be worth it. The vitamin gummies suddenly felt like they were staging a revolt against my digestive system.

"Yo, Maya, you good?" Jake dropped onto the cushion beside me. "You look like you're gonna hurl."

"Just too much sugar," I mumbled. The bear above us seemed to mock my awkwardness.

"Cool." He hesitated, then added, "Hey, about the hoodie thing..."

"It's fine."

"No, like—Sarah texted you, didn't she?" He scratched the back of his neck. "She found my phone at lunch and went through it. She's been messaging people all day trying to start drama. I've been trying to text you but I didn't have your number saved yet."

My stomach did a different kind of flip. "Oh."

"So." He nudged my shoulder with his. "You doing anything tomorrow? My band's practicing at the community center, and I could use someone who actually knows music to tell us if we suck or not."

The vitamin disaster, the cable crisis, and now this. I caught the grinning bear's plastic eyes. "Sure."

"Bet." He grinned, and I decided maybe those vitamins really were miracle workers after all. At minimum, my luck was finally turning around.