Electric Saturday Night

Maya leaned against the kitchen island, thumb-stalking her **iPhone** like it was a lifeline. The party at Jessica's house was supposed to be lit, but honestly? She felt like she'd crash harder than her dad's ancient Dell laptop.

The kitchen smelled like garlic and something aggressively green. "Maya, you gotta try this spinach artichoke dip!" Jessica's enthusiasm was terminal, but Maya forced a smile, took a chip, and dipped it like her life depended on it. She hated **spinach**—always had, since that traumatic incident at Thanksgiving when she was seven—but social survival demanded sacrifices.

She spotted him across the room: Jordan. His **orange** hoodie stood out like a beacon in the sea of neutral colors everyone else wore. He caught her eye and smiled. Maya's stomach did that thing where it forgot how to function, and she immediately redirected her attention to her phone, pretending to be fascinated by a notification from her mom.

Then something brushed against her leg. She looked down. A cat—a sleek, shadow-black cat with eyes like liquid amber—wound around her ankles like it owned the place. Maya crouched down, and the **cat** head-butted her hand, demanding attention. Its purr vibrated through her palm, surprisingly grounding in the chaos of loud music and louder teenagers.

"That's Loki," Jordan's voice came from right behind her. "He's the real reason I come to these parties."

Maya straightened up, phone forgotten in her pocket. "You're here for the cat?"

"Honestly? Yeah." Jordan leaned against the counter beside her. "Social anxiety hits different when you have an excuse to pet animals."

**Lightning** flashed outside, illuminating the entire kitchen in brilliant white. Thunder shook the house a second later. Someone screamed playfully. The power flickered and died, plunging them into darkness lit only by phone screens and flashlights.

"Well," Jordan said, his face glowing from his phone's flashlight, "this just got interesting." Loki purred louder, winding between both of them now. "Wanna hang out on the back porch and watch the storm? Actually talk, instead of pretending we're having fun?"

Maya's heart hammered, but it wasn't from anxiety this time. "Yeah," she said, and it wasn't a placeholder yeah, it was a real one. "I'd love that."

They stepped out into the cool night air as another flash of lightning split the sky, and for the first time all evening, Maya didn't reach for her phone once.