Fox Fires at Sunset Beach

Maya stood thigh-deep in the Pacific, the cold water making her skin prickle. Behind her, the bonfire crackled against an orange sky that looked like someone had spilled fruit punch across the horizon. She was here for one reason: to finally talk to Fox—the everyone-called-him-that-but-his-real-name-was-Michael guy she'd been low-key obsessing over since sophomore year.

"You coming?" her best friend Jenna called from the sand. "Chloe's about to read palms."

Maya waded back to shore, dripping. Chloe, self-proclaimed mystic of the junior class, sat cross-legged near a palm tree, her friends queued up like it was a boba shop counter. Maya dropped into the line, trying to look casual, not desperate.

"You're gonna meet someone," Chloe predicted when it was Maya's turn, tracing the lines on her palm with exaggerated seriousness. "Like, soon. But first you have to stop being so in your head."

Thanks, Maya thought. Great insight.

She found Fox standing apart from the crowd near the water's edge, kicking at the sand. The moonlight turned everything silver and weird. This was it. Her moment. She'd rehearsed approximately twelve versions of what to say.

Then her brain short-circuited.

"So," she said, instead of anything cool, "do you think the sphinx ever felt awkward? Like, asking riddles and everyone just staring?"

Fox stared at her. Then he laughed—not mean, but actually amused. "That's exactly what high school feels like. Some giant sphinx asking questions no one knows how to answer."

They stood there while the party raged behind them, talking about everything and nothing. He admitted he was nervous about college applications. She confessed she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. The ocean kept whispering at their feet.

"I'm glad you came over," Fox said as the bonfire burned down to embers.

"Me too," Maya said, and this time, she meant it.

Later, walking home with Jenna, her phone buzzed. A message from Fox: same time next weekend?

Maya grinned at the screen. Sometimes the most awkward moments led to the best ones. Even if you had to stand in freezing water and quote mythical creatures to get there.