The Summer I Unplugged

The vitamin D gummies stared at me from the kitchen counter like tiny orange accusations.

"You forgot these again," my mom said, not looking up from her phone. "It's important for your mood."

I grabbed them anyway, because avoiding the conversation would take more energy than just eating two stupid bears. Outside, the golden retriever from next door barked at nothing - probably a squirrel, or the existential dread of being a dog in suburbia.

I'd spent the last month of summer break basically rotting on the couch. My friends were all doing stuff - camp, vacations, existing without me - while I was stuck at home, marathoning shows on cable until my brain felt like static. At fifteen, that's basically pathetic.

Then Chase moved in across the street.

He was sixteen, played guitar (I could hear it through his open window sometimes), and had this messy dark hair that looked like he cut it himself. The kind of cute that makes you forget your own name.

So naturally, I developed a completely stalker-ish routine. Every afternoon, I'd "accidentally" be checking the mail when he walked his dog. We'd do this awkward nod thing. I'd overanalyze it for hours. Yesterday I'd actually managed to say hey, and he'd said hey back, and now I was convinced we were basically dating.

"You need to get out more," my mom kept saying. "You're wasting your summer."

She wasn't wrong, but she also didn't get it. Getting out there felt impossible when "there" meant real conversations, potential embarrassment, the very real risk of awkward silence.

Until the dog incident.

I was sitting on my front porch, pretending to read but actually just existing dramatically, when Chase's dog somehow got loose. It came barreling toward me like a furry missile of opportunity.

"Buster! No!" Chase came running down the street, and I - without thinking - grabbed the dog's collar.

"Got him," I said, like I'd just defused a bomb instead of holding a very good boy who was now happily licking my hand.

"Dude, thank you." Chase actually smiled at me. "You have no idea, he's escaped like three times this week."

"He's cute," I said, then immediately wanted to die because WHAT IF HE THOUGHT I MEANT -

"Yeah, he's a menace." Chase wiped sweat from his forehead. "Hey, you want to come over? My parents got this new cable package with like every channel ever, and I found this cool show about conspiracy theories."

Inside, I was screaming. Outside, I managed to nod. "Sure."

As we walked toward his house, Buster trotting between us, I thought about those vitamin gummies sitting on my counter. My mom thought they'd fix everything - my mood, my energy, my entire personality. But maybe the only thing I'd needed to feel alive wasn't in a bottle or on a screen.

It was right here, walking toward a house where someone actually wanted to hang out with me.

"So," Chase said. "What do you do all day?"

"Oh, you know," I said. "A little of this, a little of that."

I didn't mention the cable marathons. I didn't mention the vitamins. I just kept walking, my actual life finally beginning.