Gummy Vitamins and Lightning

Maya's older sister's makeup bag sat open on the bathroom counter, and inside it: a neon orange bottle of multivitamins. Maya didn't even like vitamins—she'd only swiped them because they looked like candy, because anything that made her feel more grown-up than she actually was. Seventeen and still lying about her age to get into parties. Pathetic.

The basement party was everything she hated and everything she wanted. People she recognized from school but never spoke to, red plastic cups, someone's older brother's playlist. Maya squeezed past a cluster of juniors near the stairs, feeling like she was wearing a sign that said DOESN'T BELONG HERE.

Then she saw him.

Finn. The new guy who'd transferred in March and already knew everyone. He was standing by the back door, nursing a Coke, looking like he'd rather be literally anywhere else. Maya felt something crack open in her chest, bright and sudden as lightning. Not even real lightning—just the feeling of it, that moment before a storm when the air goes all static and charged and you KNOW something's about to happen.

She'd been crushing on him for weeks, which was basic. So basic it hurt.

"Hey," he said, like he'd been waiting to talk to her. "You're Maya, right? You sit behind me in calc."

She almost choked on her own spit. "Yeah. That's me."

"Wanna get out of here?" He gestured toward the backyard. "It's loud in here."

They ended up sitting on the back porch step, knees not quite touching, while actual lightning flickered across the sky. Finn talked about how he'd moved six times in four years, how he stopped trying to make friends because what was the point. Maya found herself telling him about the vitamins she'd stolen, how she pretended to be someone she wasn't because she didn't know who she actually was yet.

"That's so fox of you," Finn said, and when she looked at him confused, he explained. "You know—crafty. Like you're figuring it out."

Maybe it was the lightning making everything feel possible. Maybe it was just the first time someone had actually SEEN her. But when Finn leaned in, Maya didn't pull away.

"So," he said later, as the storm moved off toward the horizon. "Can I have a vitamin?"

Maya laughed so hard she snorted. "Dude, those things taste like chalk."

"I don't care," Finn said, and his hand brushed hers, electric as lightning all over again. "I want in on your operation."