The Social Pyramid Scheme

Maya's hair was supposed to be lavender. It was currently the color of a bruised peach, which felt embarrassingly on brand for how tonight was going.

"You good?" Liam asked, leaning against the kitchen counter. He looked effortless in his vintage band tee, while Maya felt like she'd dressed in the dark during a power outage.

"Never been better," Maya lied. Her phone kept buzzing in her pocket like an angry hornet. She'd been doomscrolling through Instagram for three hours before the party, essentially existing as a zombie with WiFi access.

The party was at Jake's house—Jake, who sat atop the freshman social pyramid like he'd personally invented being charming. Maya was somewhere near the base, possibly in the basement.

She'd spent two hours on her hair this afternoon, watching tutorials and convincing herself that transformation was just a box dye away. Now she looked like she'd lost a fight with a highlighter.

"Cat tax," Liam said, nodding toward the living room.

Maya followed his gaze to where Chloe—the actual Chloe, not Instagram Chloe—was curled up on the couch with Jake's cat. The cat looked judgmental. The cat had every right to be judgmental.

"I should go say hi," Maya said, immediately regretting it.

"Or you could stay here with me and make fun of everyone's outfits," Liam offered. "Did you see Tyler's shoes? He's dressed like he's about to sell you NFTs."

Maya snorted. "The hair tho."

"The hair is a choice, Maya. We all make choices."

Her iPhone buzzed again. Eight new notifications. Someone had posted something. Someone else had liked something. A carousel of validation she wasn't part of.

"You know," Liam said softer now, "I liked your hair better when it was blue that one time."

"The blue was a disaster. It washed out in three days."

"Yeah but you owned it. You were like, 'this is my blue era, deal with it.' Now you're all..." He gestured vaguely at her. "...worried about the pyramid."

"The pyramid isn't real, Liam."

"Tell that to Tyler's shoes."

Maya looked at Chloe laughing with Jake, at the cat sleeping through the chaos, at Liam standing beside her with his gentle teasing and stubborn loyalty. She pulled out her phone, swiped to settings, and turned off notifications.

"What are you doing?"

"Starting my lavender era," she said. "Even if it looks like peach."

"That's the spirit," Liam grinned. "Now help me roast Tyler's shoes before he tries to sell us a metaverse investment package."

The peach-colored hair wasn't the transformation she'd planned, but maybe that was okay. Sometimes the best moments happened when you stopped trying to climb the pyramid and started hanging out with the people who'd already seen you at your worst.