1% and Holding

Maya's sweaty **palm** hovered over Liam's contact, her heart doing that stupid fluttery thing it always did when she thought about him. Sixteen years old and she was still terrified to send a simple text: "hey, are you going to Jordan's party tonight?"

Her **cat**, Jupiter, jumped onto her bed and head-butted her arm, probably sensing the meltdown. Jupiter was her emotional support animal, her ride-or-die, the only one who knew about the massive crush she'd been harboring for literally forever.

"You're the only one who gets me," Maya sighed, scratching behind his ears.

Her **iPhone** flashed that dreaded red battery icon. 1%. Of course. She'd been overthinking this text for three hours, and now she had minutes before her phone died and she'd be completely cut off from the world, which honestly sounded like peace but also meant she couldn't even stalk Jordan's party posts to see if Liam was there.

"Whatever," she muttered. "If it's meant to happen, it'll happen."

She grabbed her bag and headed to the party, phone officially dead. No distractions. No overthinking. Just her, low-key panicking in a corner with some fruit punch.

The party was exactly what she expected—too loud, too many people taking Snapchat stories of everything, her social battery draining faster than her phone had. She found herself on Jordan's back porch, which was surprisingly empty except for one person.

Liam.

He was sitting on the steps, holding a white **cable**—his phone charger, plugged into an outdoor outlet. His phone was at 2%, glowing in the darkness.

"Hey," he said, looking up. Those stupid butterflies were back.

"Hey. Saving your social life too?" she said, gesturing to the charger.

He laughed, and it was better than she'd imagined. "Literally. I was waiting for someone to text me back, but then my phone died and I realized maybe the universe was trying to tell me something."

"What's that?"

"That maybe I should've just asked her in person," he said, looking right at her. "So. Maya. Are you glad you came tonight?"

Jupiter would've been so proud. Maya smiled, her palm不再 sweating for the first time all evening. "Actually? Yeah. I really am."