The Vitamin Water Incident

Maya's hair betrayed her first. It had taken forty-five minutes and three different products to achieve the effortless cascade she'd seen on TikTok, but now it frayed at the edges like her own nerves. She clutched her vitamin water—strawberry kiwi, her mom's ridiculous suggestion for 'calming the jitters'—like it was some kind of emotional support beverage.

"You look like you're about to puke," said Leo, sliding onto the bench beside her. His cat t-shirt was vintage thrift store quality, which meant it was probably expensive.

"I'm fine," Maya lied, because that's what you did when you were a freshman at your first high school party and the air already felt thick with cologne and expectations.

Her phone buzzed. A photo from home: her sister's dog, Barnaby, wearing a stupid cone of shame after whatever vet visit had happened that afternoon. The text read: HE LOOKS RIDICULOUS, MISS U.

Maya almost smiled. Almost.

Then she heard it—Jordan telling some story about his cousin who knew someone who almost got signed to a label last summer. The way he leaned against the kitchen counter, all easy confidence and manufactured swagger. It was bullshit, everyone knew it was bullshit, but nobody called him on it because Jordan was Jordan and that was just how things worked.

"Wait," Maya said. The word slipped out before she could check herself against the possibility of social suicide. "That story's different from last time."

Jordan paused. The kitchen went quiet.

"What?"

"You said your cousin knew a producer who worked with Drake's audio engineer. Now it's an A&R guy?" Maya's heart hammered like trapped birds against her ribs. "It's just... that's kind of a big difference."

For three seconds, nobody moved. Then Jordan's friend Marcus snorted, and suddenly everyone was laughing—not at her, but at the situation. At Jordan getting called out. At the bull that nobody had dared to mention until now.

"Damn, freshmen are brutal this year," Marcus said, clapping Maya on the shoulder like they were already friends.

Later, as Leo walked her home under streetlights that turned everything golden, he said, "That was actually pretty cool."

Maya's hair was messy now. Her vitamin water was gone. But something in her chest had settled into a new shape—like maybe next time, she wouldn't need to be so afraid of speaking up.

"Yeah," she said. "I think it kind of was."