Electric Palms

Maya's palms were sweating. Like, actually sweating—gross, clammy, the kind of sweat that made holding your phone feel like gripping a melting ice cream bar. She wiped them on her denim shorts for the third time.

"You good?" Kai asked, popping open another orange soda. The can hissed.

"Yeah. Just... nervous." Maya watched the bonfire flames dance against the darkening sky. This was it. Junior year. The night she'd finally tell him how she felt.

Kai passed her the soda. "Here. Might help."

"I really shouldn't. My mom says vitamin C boosts immunity, but I think my immune system is doing fine. It's my confidence that needs work."

Kai laughed—that genuine, crinkly-eyed laugh that made Maya's stomach do that annoying flip thing. "You're overthinking it. You always do."

The beach party was in full swing. Someone's Bluetooth speaker pumped muffled bass. Palm trees swayed in the wind, their fronds silhouetted against purple twilight. Ten feet away, her friends were taking selfies. Their lives looked so easy from the outside. Why couldn't she just be normal?

"I'm gonna say it," Maya blurted.

Kai tilted his head. "Say what?"

"That I—"

CRACK.

Lightning split the sky—a jagged white scar tearing through the clouds. The whole beach flinched. Rain dropped like someone had overturned a cosmic bucket.

"RUN!" someone screamed, and suddenly it was chaos. People scattering, phones jangling, sand flying everywhere. Maya grabbed Kai's hand without thinking and bolted toward the beach house.

They stumbled onto the covered porch, soaked and breathless. Kai's hair plastered to his forehead. Maya's mascara definitely ran down her cheeks—she could feel it.

Then they were laughing. Hysterical, breathless laughter bent over their knees.

"That was insane," Kai wheezed.

Maya looked at him. Really looked at him. The orange soda stain on his shirt. The way he shook water from his hair like a dog. The sudden, terrifying clarity that she'd been waiting for the perfect moment, and perfect moments didn't exist.

"I like you," she said. Her heart hammered against her ribs. "Like, I've liked you forever."

The laughter died on Kai's lips. The porch lights flickered behind him. Somewhere, thunder growled.

"Oh," he said.

Maya's stomach dropped. All at once. Completely. She'd misread everything. She'd ruined their friendship. She was going to die. Actually die. She should just walk into the ocean right now—

"Cool," Kai said. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I was gonna say something, but I didn't think you'd be into me like that."

Maya blinked. "Wait. What?"

"I was working up to it. But, like, coward's way out? I was waiting for you to bring it up."

"You—"

"Yeah."

"But you—"

"Yeah."

Maya's palms weren't sweating anymore. She looked at Kai, at the rain sheeting down beyond the porch overhang, at the palm trees still swaying in the storm. Somewhere in the distance, lightning struck again, but this time she didn't flinch.

"So," she said. "Now what?"

Kai smiled—that genuine one that still made her stomach flip. "Now we figure it out. Together."

The rain kept falling. The storm wasn't over. But for the first time, Maya wasn't nervous anymore.