The Vitamin G Incident

The lightning flashed outside the cafeteria window, making Marcus jump. Again.

"Dude, you need to chill," said Jordan, sliding onto the bench across from him. "Here."

He pushed a small orange bottle across the table. VITAMIN G, the label read in aggressive all-caps.

"What is this?" Marcus asked, already suspicious.

"Vitamin G. As in, the vitamin for 'game.' My cousin swore by it before prom last year. Said it makes you, like, immune to awkwardness."

Marcus stared at the bottle. Jordan had been his friend since seventh grade, back when Marcus was the quiet new kid and Jordan decided to adopt him like a stray puppy. But Jordan also swore by those CBD gummies that gave him a rash, so his track record was... mixed.

"This isn't FDA approved, is it?"

"FDA can't approve confidence, Marcus. That's the whole point." Jordan's phone buzzed. He checked it and grinned. "Chloe's having people over Friday. Her parents are out of town. If we show up, you need to talk to her. Like, actually talk to her. Not stare at your shoes whenever she says hello."

Another lightning strike lit up the gray sky. Marcus's stomach did that familiar twisty thing.

Chloe. The girl he'd been lowkey obsessed with since biology, when she'd laughed at his terrible joke about mitochondria and then actually remembered it two weeks later. But every time he tried to talk to her, his brain turned into static.

"I can't just—"

"Then take the vitamin G. What's the worst that happens?" Jordan shrugged. "Either you talk to Chloe, or you pee slightly more than usual. Win-win."

Marcus rolled his eyes but pocketed the bottle.

Friday arrived with actual sunlight for once. The vitamin G tablets looked disturbingly like ground-up sidewalk chalk, but Marcus downed two with grape soda before leaving his house. He felt ridiculous immediately.

Jordan's car already sat in Chloe's driveway when Marcus arrived. Through the front window, he could see people. Many people. Too many people.

"You got this," Jordan said, appearing behind him. "Did you take it?"

"Yeah, I'm not stupid."

"Then go in there and be absolutely not-awkward."

Inside, someone was playing a Taylor Swift song too loudly. Groups of people clustered around the kitchen island and living room. Marcus's chest tightened.

Then he saw her. Chloe. Standing near the sliding glass door, holding a red cup, looking radiant in that way that made everything else in the room fade to background noise.

She looked up and caught his eye. She smiled.

Marcus's brain: still static.

His feet moved anyway. Some survival instinct kicked in, pushing him forward even as his mind screamed abort abort abort.

"Hey Marcus!" she said, like she was genuinely happy to see him. "I was hoping you'd come."

"Uh, hi." Smooth. Excellent work. "Your, um, house is... nice?"

Why was he like this?

Chloe laughed, and it wasn't mean-spirited at all. "Thanks. My mom would be thrilled to hear you approve." She leaned closer. "Hey, do you want to go outside? It's kinda loud in here."

They ended up on the back porch, sitting on the steps as the sun dipped below the horizon. The conversation started awkward—school, teachers, the questionable cafeteria food—but somehow shifted to real things. Her dream of becoming a marine biologist. His secret love for photography, how he captured lightning storms from his bedroom window last summer.

"Wait, seriously?" Chloe turned to face him, eyes bright. "I've always wanted to do that. Can I see some sometime?"

"Yeah, actually." Marcus felt something unfamiliar. Confidence? Or just the absence of impending doom? "I have, like, hundreds of photos on my phone."

"I'd love that." Her phone buzzed. She checked it and sighed. "I have to go help clean up a spill in the kitchen. But Marcus?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really glad you came tonight."

When she left, Marcus sat there for a long moment, letting it sink in. She wanted to see his photos. She was glad he came. They'd had an actual conversation, and he hadn't said anything catastrophically embarrassing.

Jordan found him on the porch ten minutes later, grinning like he knew something.

"So?"

"We're hanging out tomorrow," Marcus said, and couldn't help smiling back. "She wants to see my lightning photos."

"VITAMIN G, BABY!" Jordan shouted, and Marcus knew he'd never hear the end of it.

Later that night, Marcus researched Vitamin G online. There was no such thing. It was just ground-up vitamin C tablets Jordan had repackaged in an old container.

He texted Jordan: YOU FAKED THE VITAMIN G??

Jordan: did it work tho

Marcus thought about Chloe's laugh, the way she'd leaned in when he spoke, the fact that they had plans tomorrow.

Marcus: yeah. yeah it did

Outside his window, summer lightning flickered across the sky. Marcus grabbed his camera and headed to the window, feeling something shift inside him, something electric and new and entirely his own.