The Ghost in the Goldfish Bowl

Three days of total radio silence from Jordan, and I was spiraling. I sat cross-legged on my bedroom floor, dramatically staring at my goldfish like it held the answers to the universe. Its name was Captain Fin, and honestly? He looked dead.

"Are you even alive, little dude?" I whispered, tapping the glass. Nothing. Great. Even my fish was ghosting me.

My phone sat dark beside me. Jordan hadn't replied to my last five messages. No reaction to the meme I sent at 2 AM. Nothing. My brain had conjured approximately 47 scenarios: they hated me now, I'd said something weird, they'd found a cooler best friend, they'd been replaced by a pod person.

I felt like a zombie going through the motions at school. Sitting with our friend group at lunch, Jordan barely looked at me. When I asked what was wrong, they'd just mumbled something about being tired and stared at their phone. The overthinking was absolutely living rent-free in my head.

"Whatever," I sighed, reaching for my laptop to doom-scroll. "I'll just rot in here forever."

But WiFi wasn't connecting. I traced the cable under my bed with my foot, following it to the wall where—yep. Not even plugged in all the way. The thing had been loose for who knows how long.

I pushed it in properly. My phone instantly buzzed. THREE missed notifications from Jordan.

Me: "Are you mad at me??"

Jordan: "lol no why??"

Jordan: "i sent u that tiktok like an hour ago"

Jordan: "u didn't reply so i thought u were busy"

I stared at the screen, my face burning. All that spiraling. All those scenarios. And it was just... a loose cable?

Captain Fin suddenly darted to the surface, gulping air with surprisingly dramatic energy. Okay, so he wasn't dead either.

My fingers flew across the screen: "BRO you won't believe this. My WiFi cable was unplugged. I thought you were ghosting me.

Jordan replied instantly: "LMAO typical. come over, my mom made those brownies you like"

I grabbed my hoodie, Captain Fin doing a little victory swim in the background. Sometimes the worst ghosts in your head are just loose cables and overthinking. And sometimes your best friend is just three notifications away, waiting for you to reconnect.