The Vitamin Friend

The fluorescent gym lights buzzed as Maya downed her third vitamin D supplement of the day. Her best friend Chloe had sworn these were the secret to surviving sophomore year with perfect skin and endless energy, but Maya mostly just felt jittery.

"You good?" Marcus asked, pulling his AirPods out. He'd been waiting by her locker for twenty minutes while she "finished something" in the bathroom. The something was fixing her mascara and reapplying lip gloss for the third time.

Maya's phone lit up with a text from Chloe: *Track tryouts after school. U coming?*

She'd been running from her real self since middle school, and the vitamin supplements were just the latest thing Chloe insisted would make her better. Cooler. More tolerable.

"Yeah," Maya told Marcus. "Just tired."

They'd been friends since seventh grade, back when Maya was still comfortable in her oversized hoodies and Marcus was the quiet kid who sat behind her in math. Now he was rising star of the cross country team, and Maya was whatever version of herself Chloe said she should be this week.

The real problem wasn't the vitamins. It was that Maya had been running so long she'd forgotten what she was running toward.

"My mom said these vitamins are actually just sugar pills," Marcus said suddenly, nodding at the bottle in her hand. "You've been taking them since September, Maya. You okay?"

Something in his voice made her pause. Maybe it was the way he actually looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time in months. Or maybe it was just that she was tired of running from the person she actually liked being.

"No," Maya said. "Not really."

Marcus didn't laugh. He didn't make it weird. He just slid down the locker to sit beside her. "Wanna skip seventh period and go get actual food?"

Maya looked at the vitamin bottle, then at Chloe's latest text demanding she come to tryouts, then at Marcus who'd been her friend through every version of herself.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, I do."