The Vitamin Water Incident

Maya's thumb hovered over her iPhone screen, heart racing as she stared at the private Instagram account she'd accidentally stumbled upon. Her ex-best friend Chloe had been posting stories about her all week—screenshots of their old DMs, photos Maya had sent in confidence, little captions calling her 'fake.' It felt like Chloe was conducting a personal spy mission against her life.

"You good?" asked Jay, sliding into the cafeteria seat beside her. He placed a neon-orange vitamin water on the table—her favorite, the one she'd mentioned exactly once during freshman orientation.

Maya jumped, nearly knocking over her tray. "Yeah. Just... stuff."

Jay followed her gaze to the phone. "Ah. The Chloe situation again?"

"How'd you—"

"Everyone knows, Maya. She's been making it pretty obvious." Jay leaned in, lowering his voice. "Honestly? It's giving middle school energy. You're too cool for that drama."

Maya's chest tightened. She'd spent the past month feeling like the bull in a china shop of her own life—clumsy, destructive, out of place. Meanwhile, Chloe had reinvented herself as this confident,社交媒体-savvy queen who knew exactly how to make someone feel small without ever saying their name.

"She's posting my private texts, Jay."

"I know." He hesitated, then added, "A bunch of us were thinking—we could report her account. Like, mass report. Enough people do it, Instagram takes it down."

Maya stared at him. A wave of something warm washed over her—relief, gratitude, something she hadn't felt in weeks. "You'd do that?"

"Duh." Jay grinned, all lopsided and genuine. "You're my chem lab partner. I literally can't fail this semester without you."

Maya laughed, surprising herself. It felt good. Real.

Her phone buzzed—another notification from Chloe's account. But for the first time in a month, Maya didn't open it. Instead, she slid her phone across the table toward Jay, watching his eyes go wide as he scrolled through the evidence.

"Okay," he said, already pulling out his own phone. "Operation Take Down the Account starts now. You in?"

Maya took a sip of the vitamin water. It was sweet, artificial, and perfect. "I'm in."

The best part? She didn't even feel the need to check her phone for the rest of the day.