Charged

Maya's iPhone died at 8:47 PM — exactly forty-two minutes before Tyler said he might actually show up to Jasmine's party. Of course. The universe had impeccable timing when it came to her social life.

"Anyone have a cable?" she called out, but the basement was already chaos. Someone had spilled spinach dip on the carpet, and three seniors were arguing about which music app had the better algorithm. Maya felt small in her own skin, like she'd borrowed someone else's confidence and forgotten to return it.

"Check the kitchen," Chloe shouted over the bass, not looking up from where she was demonstrating some TikTok dance.

Maya pushed through the crowd, heart doing that weird fluttery thing it always did when she thought about Tyler. They'd been flirting for weeks, mostly through late texts and shared playlists, but tonight was supposed to be their first real thing. An actual moment. And now her phone was dead, so she couldn't even panic-text her friends for emergency advice.

She found a charging cable behind the refrigerator — how it got there, nobody knew — and plugged in near the back door. 3%. Not great, but enough.

"Hey."

She jumped. Tyler was standing there, hands in his pockets, looking unfairly good in that way that made her brain forget basic vocabulary.

"Hey," she managed. "I was just — my phone died."

"Happens." He stepped closer, and Maya could smell his cologne. Or maybe it was just rain. "Your hair looks nice like that."

"Oh. Thanks." She hadn't even done anything to it. "I mean, you too. Your hair. It's... good hair."

Tyler laughed, and Maya wanted to evaporate. But then he said, "I was hoping you'd be here. I came early specifically to find you before it got too loud."

The basement lights flickered once, twice — a storm rolling in. Outside, lightning cracked the sky open, bright as camera flash. For a second, everything was illuminated: Tyler's smile, her spinach-dipped sneaker, the weird intimacy of standing by someone's back door while everyone else pretended to be cooler than they felt.

"We could go outside?" Tyler suggested. "Watch the storm?"

Maya looked at her phone — 7% now. Plenty of time to panic later. "Yeah," she said, and something in her chest settled. "I'd like that."