The Night Everything Changed

Marcus was practically sprinting down Maple Street, his Vans slapping against the pavement in a rhythm that matched his thundering heart. He'd just embarrassed himself completely at Kayla's party—spilled an entire red cup of fruit punch on her pristine white rug while trying to impress her with some cool move he'd practiced in the mirror. Now he was running away from his social life, which had been hanging by a thread anyway.

He'd barely made it three blocks when he spotted it: a cat, this magnificent, fluffy orange tabby, sitting calmly on a brick wall like it owned the entire neighborhood. The cat watched him with these ancient, knowing yellow eyes, and Marcus stopped running. Something about that gaze made him feel seen in a way no one at school ever had.

"Yeah, I know," Marcus panted, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. "Total disaster back there."

The cat flicked its tail and hopped down, rubbing against his leg like they were old friends. Marcus reached down to pet it, and that's when he noticed the cable—it was snaking through the grass, partially exposed, someone's internet connection just waiting there. His cousin Javier had shown him how to patch these things last summer when he'd gotten that temp job with the cable company.

Marcus looked at the cat, then at the cable, then back at the party house three blocks away. He could practically hear the silence from where the WiFi had probably just died.

"You're a bad influence," he told the cat, but he was already kneeling in the grass, tools from his backpack (because you never knew when you'd need to fix something).

Twenty minutes later, Marcus walked back toward Kayla's house, the cat trailing behind him like it was his pet now. The WiFi was restored. The cat, which he'd somehow decided to name Glitch, was now his responsibility. And when Kayla opened the door and saw him there with this orange cat like some kind of offering, she didn't even mention the fruit punch stain.

"Is that... a cat?" she asked, grinning.

"His name's Glitch," Marcus said, and for the first time all night, he wasn't running anymore.