Neon Fox Friday Night

Maya's phone buzzed for the third time in five minutes. The group chat was blowing up about Tyler's party tonight, and she was still staring at her reflection like it might somehow magically fix itself.

"You're not actually bailing, are you?" Chloe leaned against Maya's doorframe, already decked out in full glam—sparkly eyeshadow, the works. "It's Tyler's rager. Everyone's gonna be there."

Maya groaned and flopped backward onto her bed. "I have nothing to wear. Everything I own makes me look like a middle schooler who discovered fashion three weeks ago."

"First of all, dramatic. Second of all—" Chloe stepped into the room, pulling something from her bag. "I brought you this."

She held up an orange sundress that Maya had been coveting for literal months. The kind of orange that made people actually stop and stare.

"No WAY. You didn't." Maya sat up, suddenly fully awake. "That's the dress from your boutique!"

"It's your lucky night, bestie. Now GET. IN. THIS." Chloe's eyes gleamed with determined energy. "We're gonna make you so hot, Alex won't know what hit him."

*Oh no. She knew.*

"There's no 'Alex situation,'" Maya lied poorly, feeling her cheeks burn. "He's just... in my AP Chem class. That we have lab partners in. That's literally it."

"Mmhmm, sure." Chloe's smirk said she saw right through it. "Just like I 'literally don't care' whether my crush liked my Instagram story. We're all just friends here, Maya. Totally platonic."

By the time they rolled up to Tyler's house, the party was already in full swing. Music thudded through the walls, cars lined both sides of the street, and a pack of what looked like sophomore boys were definitely pretending to be drunker than they actually were.

Maya's stomach did that thing where it simultaneously wanted to throw up and also never stop dancing. Social anxiety was her absolute worst enemy, especially at parties where she didn't know half the people.

*What if no one talks to me? What if Alex ignores me? What if—*

Then she saw him.

Alex was leaning against the kitchen counter, laughing at something Tyler said, and the fluorescent kitchen lighting hit his hair just right and why was being a teenager so emotionally exhausting?

Then lightning cracked through the sky outside, sudden and blinding, and the entire room went pitch black for a split second before the backup generator kicked on.

"Whoa!" someone shouted. "Did y'all see that?!"

"The storm must've knocked the power," Chloe whispered, eyes wide. "This is literally peak cinematic timing."

And then somehow Maya was standing next to Alex in the suddenly much more intimate, dimly lit kitchen, and he was smiling at her and her brain short-circuited.

"Hey, Maya." His voice was lower than she remembered, somehow softer. "I like your dress. Orange looks really good on you."

Her heart executed a single, perfect backflip. "Thanks. It's, um, Chloe's. I'm borrowing it."

"Well, tell Chloe I said she has excellent taste." He stepped a little closer. "I was hoping you'd be here tonight. We haven't really talked much since... you know, the lab incident."

The Lab Incident. Where she'd accidentally set off the smoke detector and they'd both had to explain themselves to the scariest teacher in school.

"Yeah, about that—" she started, but suddenly Chloe appeared out of literally nowhere, her eyes gleaming with foxlike cunning.

"Maya, emergency. Outside. NOW." Chloe grabbed her wrist and dragged her toward the back door before Maya could even process what was happening.

"What? What's wrong?" Maya stumbled after her, confusion warring with disappointment.

Once they were outside on the patio, away from the noise, Chloe turned to her with a grin that was equal parts thrilled and terrifying.

"I just saved you from having a panic attack in front of your crush. You're welcome."

Maya stared at her. "I—what?"

"You were literally vibrating with anxiety, Maya. I could see it from across the room." Chloe's expression softened. "I figured you needed a minute. Also, Alex was definitely about to ask you to hang out sometime, and I wanted you to have your game face on before you said yes."

"You think he was gonna ask me out?" Maya whispered, hope flaring in her chest.

"I know he was. I'm not clueless, bestie." Chloe hugged her suddenly. "Now take a breath, fix your lip gloss, and go back in there and get your man. I believe in you."

Maya took a deep breath, the smell of rain and approaching storm filling her lungs. The sky lit up with more lightning, distant and beautiful, and for the first time all night, she felt ready.

"Okay," she said. "Okay. I've got this."

"That's my fox." Chloe grinned. "Now let's go crash this party properly."