Lines We Don't Choose

Maya's palms were sweating so much she could barely grip the Sharpie. Behind the school gym, at the weirdo carnival that nobody actually wanted to attend, some senior named Ravi was charging $5 for palm readings. He had a setup that belonged in a fortune teller's tent: purple velvet cloth, a crystal paperweight from his mom's office, and a candle that smelled like coconut everything.

"You're going to do it or not?" asked Leo, bouncing on his toes like he always did when he was nervous. Which was constantly. The guy chewed vitamin gummies like candy and claimed they helped him "optimize his social battery."

"If I do it, will you finally text Chloe back?"

Leo choked on nothing. "That's different and you know it."

Ravi looked up from under his bangs. "Your lifeline is actually kind of a mess," he told Maya, tracing her palm with one long fingernail. "But your heart line's doing something weird." He squinted. "Like, two forks in the road and they both lead somewhere—"

A gray tabby cat that had been living behind the gym since freshman year jumped onto the card table and knocked over the crystal.

"Okay, what," Maya said, pulling her hand back.

"Barnaby says you're overthinking it," Ravi said, like this was normal. "Cats can sense when people are lying to themselves about who they're supposed to be. He does this at every reading, it's annoying."

Maya looked at her own palm. She'd been looking at it all week—scared, because she'd accidentally come out to her friend group as queer over text and they'd just replied with thumbs-up emojis and moved on. No drama, no questions, just... nothing. Her palms had felt weird ever since. Heavy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Leo asked Ravi.

"Means your friend here thinks she needs a label to be real," Ravi said, scratching Barnaby's ears. "But she's already doing it. She's already living it. The lines in your hand don't tell you who you are—they show where you've been."

Barnaby meowed.

"Also," Ravi added, "you got a text."

Maya's phone buzzed. Chloe's name popped up: hey, noticed u never answered about the movies. u down or what? ;)

"Your lifeline's fine," Ravi said suddenly, "you're just in the part where everything feels like the end of the world but it's actually just the middle."

Leo tossed a vitamin gummy to Barnaby. The cat ignored it, of course.

"Thanks," Maya said, and grabbed Leo's arm before he could retreat into his shell. "We're going to the movies. You're coming."

She didn't look at her palm again. Some lines you draw yourself, and some you don't have to read to know what they mean.