Lightning in a Bottle

Maya's hair had other plans tonight. The Afro she'd spent two hours perfecting now poufed around her head like a startled cloud, thanks to the humidity rolling in off the Atlantic. Great. Just what she needed—first high school party, and she looked like a microfiber sponge come to life.

She leaned against the kitchen wall, nursing a lukewarm soda, watching everyone else. This was her specialty: being a casual spy in her own life. She'd Instagram-stalked half these people, knew who liked whom, who'd fake-dated who, and whose parents were divorcing. Information was currency, and Maya was rich.

Then Jaxon walked in. The guy she'd been lowkey obsessing over since September. He wore that distressed denim jacket he always wore, hair falling over one eye in that way that made girls literally sigh in the hallway.

Maya's stomach did that lightning thing—where everything suddenly illuminates, all your nerves fire at once, and you're pretty sure you might throw up or die or both. She considered bolting. No one would notice. She was practically invisible anyway.

"Yo, who brought the bulls**t meter?" Jaxon was saying nearby, loud enough for her to hear. "Ryan's over there talking about his uncle's record label again. Like, bro, we all know you're lying."

Maya snorted before she could stop herself. Jaxon's eyes snapped to her, grinning.

"Right?" He sauntered over. "You're in my calculus class. Maya, yeah?"

Her brain short-circuited. "Uh. Yeah. Hi."

"Your hair is sick, by the way." He nodded at her Afro catastrophe. "Mine's being basic tonight."

Maya blinked. "Sick? Like, good?"

"Obviously." He laughed, and it sounded genuine. "You got volume. I got... whatever this is." He gestured at his own basic waves.

Outside, actual lightning cracked the sky, followed immediately by thunder that rattled the windows. Someone screamed. The power died, plunging them into darkness lit only by phone flashlights and the storm outside.

"Welp," Jaxon said, closer now in the dim kitchen. "Guess we're trapped in here together. Bull**t.

Maya's heart was doing something unhinged. "Totally," she managed. "Trapped."

"Cool," he said, and didn't move away. "Cool."