The Orange Cat Incident

My life ended at 7:43 PM on a Saturday. Okay, not literally, but definitely socially.

I'd spent two hours on my hair. Two hours. My mom said the orange highlights were "too much" for Jordan's back-to-school party, but whatever. She wouldn't get it. She still says "lit" unironically.

"You look... intentional," Jordan said when I showed up, which I think was supposed to be a compliment? I was still decoding it when my cousin Maya grabbed my arm and hissed, "Spinach. In your teeth. Since when do you even eat spinach?"

I froze. Spinach. In my teeth. At Jordan's party. Where Ryan—the Ryan who'd liked my Instagram story twice—was literally five feet away.

I made a beeline for the bathroom. The house was packed, someone was blasting that new song everyone pretended wasn't annoying, and somewhere a dog was barking like its life depended on it. Classic house party chaos.

I reached for the bathroom door handle just as it swung open and—CRASH. Jordan's sister stumbled out, eyes wide, clutching an orange juice-stained dress. Behind her? An orange cat perched on the counter like it owned the place, licking something suspiciously green off its paw.

"Your cat," she whispered, "just ate someone's spinach dip off the buffet table. Like. All of it."

I stared at the cat. The cat stared at me with zero regrets.

"Is that..." I pointed at the hat rack where someone's very expensive-looking baseball cap had fallen victim to the orange juice incident.

"Ryan's," she groaned. "He LOVES that hat."

And that's how I ended up hiding in the bathroom with Jordan's sister, two random sophomores, and one very guilty orange cat, while my cousin outside somehow convinced everyone that spinach dip spills were now a TikTok trend. Ryan didn't even care about his hat. Apparently he'd been wanting an excuse to wear his backup one anyway.

"Worst party ever?" someone asked.

"Actually," I said, checking my teeth in the mirror, spinach-free at last, "kinda iconic?"

Ryan texted me the next morning. "Your hair looked really cool btw. Also did you see that cat? Wild."

I stared at my phone. My mom was right about the orange. But she was wrong about everything else.