Electric at Emma's

Maya stood in the corner of Emma's massive backyard, nursing the same lukewarm soda for forty-five minutes. The party of the year, supposedly, and she was mostly just watching people she barely knew posturing for Instagram stories. It was exhausting being invisible, but somehow worse when people actually noticed you.

"Yo, try this!" Jake materialized, holding a plate with what looked like exotic fruit. "My mom's obsessed with hosting legit stuff. It's papaya. Ever had it?"

Maya shook her head, taking a tentative bite. "It's... interesting?"

"Right?" Jake laughed, and Maya felt that weird lightning jolt in her chest—the one that had nothing to do with weather and everything to do with how his eyes crinkled when he smiled. She'd been crushing on him since Bio first semester, but Jake was popular and Maya was, well, just there.

Suddenly, the sky went weirdly dark. Someone screamed—playfully at first, then not so much as the first actual lightning bolt cracked somewhere close. Rain started sheeting down, turning the expensive party into chaos.

"The goldfish!" Emma shrieked, pointing at a small bowl on a patio table. "My little brother won it at the fair yesterday, it can't get drowned!"

Maya didn't think. She just grabbed the bowl and sprinted toward the covered porch, Jake right beside her. They huddled under the overhang, rain cascading around them, holding a plastic fishbowl between them like the most ridiculous treasure in the world.

"You okay?" Jake asked, like he actually meant it.

"Yeah," Maya said, and realized she was grinning like an idiot. "You?"

He looked at her, really looked at her, while the storm raged and the goldfish swam obliviously. "Better now."

The lightning flashed again, illuminating everything perfectly for one split second—his hand covering hers on the bowl, his hair plastered to his forehead, both of them soaked and ridiculous and alive. Maybe parties weren't that bad after all. Or maybe, she thought as thunder rattled the porch, she'd just needed to get caught in the right storm.