Lightning in My Palm

Maya's palms were sweating. Like, actually sweating-through-her-little-black-dress sweating. Jordan's party was already lit when she arrived — bass thumping through the walls, people flooding the front yard, and that weird energy that makes everything feel possible and terrible at the same time.

She'd been crushing on Jordan since seventh period English when they'd been partnered for that Sphinx project — the one where they had to decode ancient riddles together. He'd made her laugh so hard she snorted, which was basically social suicide at the time, but he'd just smiled and said it was cute.

Now she was here, standing in his kitchen, clutching a red Solo cup like it was a lifeline.

"Hey!" Jordan appeared behind her, all dimples and easy confidence. "Glad you made it."

"Yeah," Maya managed. "Thanks for inviting me."

His cat, an enormous orange fluff-ball named Nacho, wound through her legs, purring like a tiny motor. Maya reached down automatically — she'd always been a cat person, something about how they demanded attention on their own terms.

"He likes you," Jordan said, and something in his voice made Maya's heart do that flippy thing it did whenever he looked at her too long.

Outside, lightning cracked across the sky, illuminating the kitchen in sudden stark brightness. Someone screamed dramatically, and half the party rushed to the windows to watch the storm roll in.

"Want to see something cool?" Jordan asked, that gleam in his eyes that meant trouble but the good kind.

"Sure?"

He led her upstairs to his room, where posters covered almost every inch of wall space. On his desk sat the Sphinx project they'd built together — a painted plaster statue with actual LED eyes that they'd wired themselves. It had been three weeks of staying after school, of sharing headphones and eating vending machine snacks and neither of them saying what they were actually thinking.

Jordan hit a switch, and the Sphinx's eyes glowed blue in the dark room.

"I kept it," he said, suddenly shy. "Because, like, working on it with you was... I don't know. It was just really fun."

Maya felt something shift in her chest, something warm and terrifying.

"Yeah," she said softly. "It was."

Thunder rattled the windows. Jordan's phone buzzed — someone calling him back to the party. But for a moment, neither of them moved.

"Jordan—" she started, but he stepped closer, and she could see the same nervous energy reflected in his face.

"Maya, I've been wanting to—"

Nacho chose that moment to bolt into the room, tail puffed to maximum volume. They both laughed, breaking the tension.

"Later?" Jordan asked, eyes never leaving hers.

"Later," she agreed, palm suddenly steady as she finally let herself breathe.

The storm outside was just getting started, but something inside her had already changed.