Goldfish in My Palm

My hair refused to cooperate. Three hours with a straightener, and somehow I still looked like I'd stuck my finger in an electrical socket. Typical.

"You look fine, Maya. You look hot," Leo insisted from where he flopped across my bed, scrolling through TikTok like he hadn't spent the last week flirting with me then pretending I didn't exist at school.

"I look like a zombie," I muttered, wiping my sweating palms on my jeans. "A zombie who's trying too hard."

The words hung there between us. Zombie. That's exactly what I felt like—walking through school half-asleep, watching life happen from behind glass. And this party? This was supposed to fix everything.

Leo finally looked up, really looked at me. "You're not gonna be a zombie tonight. You're gonna be Maya. The Maya who saved that goldfish from the carnival booth because she felt bad it was stuck in a tiny bag. The Maya who—" He cut himself off, his face going pink.

"Who what?"

"Who I've been practically obsessed with since seventh grade, okay?" He sat up, suddenly intense. "Why do you think I'm always here? Why do you think I noticed your hair looked different even though it totally doesn't in a bad way?"

My heart did something stupid in my chest. "But at school—"

"At school I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to talk to you without everyone making it weird." He reached out, hesitated, then gently touched my hair. "You don't need to fix it. It's perfect. You're perfect."

The goldfish bowl on my desk caught the light. Little Fin, my carnival rescue, swam to the surface like he knew.

"So..." I managed, my palms somehow sweating worse. "You're coming to the party?"

Leo stood up, grinning. "I wasn't planning on it. But for you? I'd go anywhere. Even if I have to be a zombie tomorrow morning."

He held out his hand. I took it, and somehow my sweaty palms didn't matter anymore.

"Your hair looks great, by the way," he added, opening my door. "Like, actually great. Not just friend-great."

Some nights change everything. This was one of them.