The Vitamin Cable Incident

Lena's phone buzzed against her nightstand for the third time. 2:47 AM. She shouldn't look—she knew better—but her thumb was already sliding across the screen before her brain could catch up.

It was the group chat. Of course it was.

"OMG did you see what Maya posted??"

"She's literally flirting with JASON now"

"after she swore to Katie she wouldn't"

"that girl has ZERO loyalty i can't"

Lena felt like a total spy, lurking in the shadows while her friends spilled tea she had no business drinking. But she couldn't look away. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion, except the car was her social life and the crash was happening in lowercase with too many emojis.

Her mom had been on a wellness kick lately, leaving those gross gummy **vitamin** supplements on Lena's desk with sticky notes like "For focus! ❤️ Mom" as if Lena's entire existence wasn't just one long cry for focus already. She popped two into her mouth. Whatever. Couldn't hurt.

The TV was still on, paused halfway through some reality show where people pretended their problems were real. The **cable** box blinked at her like it knew something she didn't.

"You gonna say anything?" she muttered to it.

The cable box said nothing. Because it was a cable box.

Lena's stomach did that thing it always did when she thought about Jason—the fluttery, terrified feeling that she'd **bear** witness to something actually happening in her life for once. Jason had sat next to her in biology yesterday. For forty-seven glorious minutes, their elbows had touched. He'd smelled like cinnamon gum and something else she couldn't place, maybe just confidence, which was basically a cologne for guys who didn't overthink everything.

But Maya? Maya was the kind of pretty that made teachers give her extra credit just for existing. She wasn't a bad person, but she operated on a different frequency—like, main character energy while everyone else was just background extras waiting for their cue.

The phone lit up again.

"wait"

"WAIT"

"katie just posted a story"

Lena felt it instantly—the rising panic, the **bull** that high school always seemed to serve at 3 AM when you were alone with your thoughts and your gummy vitamins and your paused cable TV. The way your own brain could gaslight you into thinking everyone was having conversations about you, judging you, evaluating your worth like you were up for review at a job you never applied for.

She almost typed something. Almost asked "what did she say??" but her finger hovered over send and something stopped her.

Not tonight.

Instead, Lena did something she'd never done before. She closed the group chat. Opened Jason's contact—the one she'd been too scared to message since, well, forever.

"Hey," she typed. "This is gonna sound random but I really liked that hoodie you wore yesterday. The green one."

Send.

Her heart hammered against her ribs like it was trying to escape.

Three dots appeared.

Then: "lol thanks?? my mom bought it but i appreciate the validation len 😂"

She stared at his response until her vision blurred. He'd called her Len. Nobody called her Len.

**cable** TV forgotten. Group chat silenced. Vitamins—who cared.

For the first time in forever, Lena put her phone down and actually fell asleep with something like hope in her chest.