The Catfishing Catastrophe

Maya's fingers flew across her iPhone screen at lightning speed, the blue light illuminating her face in the darkness of her bedroom. 2:47 AM. Again.

"You're literally a spy now," she whispered to herself, refreshing Kai's Instagram story for the fifteenth time. "This is normal. This is fine. Everyone does this."

Her cat, Nacho, disagreed. The orange tabby leaped onto her desk, knocking over a stack of textbooks and accidentally hitting the "heart" button on a photo from Kai's profile—from three years ago. Maya froze. The little notification that said "Maya liked this" appeared on screen, glowing like a neon sign announcing her social suicide.

"NACHO!" she hissed, shoving him gently. He purred, completely unbothered by having just destroyed her entire social life.

The worst part wasn't even the accidental like. It was that she'd spent the past month becoming a digital spy, tracking Kai's every move online, memorizing his schedule, learning his favorite video games, even accidentally memorizing his sister's birthday. She knew everything about him, and he didn't even know she existed.

Until now.

Her phone buzzed. A DM from Kai: "uhhh thanks for the like?? from 2022?? lol"

Maya's stomach did somersaults. This was it. The moment of truth. She could play it cool, pretend she'd just been scrolling through old photos, own her weirdness with confidence... or she could die of embarrassment right here on her bedroom floor.

Nacho head-butted her hand, demanding attention. The traitor.

"spy work is over," she told him, typing back: "haha just doing some deep diving into internet history no big deal"

"bold of u to admit it," Kai replied. "u okay?"

Maya stared at her screen. She wasn't okay. She was tired of spying, tired of lurking, tired of watching everyone else live their lives while she hovered on the edges. She wanted to be in the picture, not the person pressing her nose against the glass.

"actually no," she typed, heart hammering. "i've been wanting to talk to you forever but i'm awkward and didn't know how so i just stalked your instagram instead which is probably creepy sorry"

Three dots appeared. Then disappeared. Then appeared again.

"finally," Kai wrote. "i've been waiting for you to say something since homecoming. i thought you didn't like me."

Maya looked at Nacho, who was now aggressively demanding pets. "You're the worst spy," she told him. "But maybe you're a pretty good wingman."