Palm Lines and Party Lies

Maya's palms were sweating. Literally sweating. She clutched her phone so hard the **cable** connecting it to the portable charger bent at a concerning angle.

"You good?" Marcus asked, leaning against the **palm** tree behind him like he was in a music video. Which, honestly, he kind of was. His Instagram had 45K followers.

"Yeah. Just..." Maya gestured vaguely at the beach house party raging twenty feet away. "Not really my scene."

"Then why'd you come?"

**Lightning** flashed across the dark sky, illuminating Marcus's stupidly perfect jawline. Maya shrugged. "Free food?"

"You're such a bad **spy**," Marcus laughed. "I've seen you staring at Jordan all night."

Maya's face burned. "I wasn't—"

"It's cool." Marcus pushed off the tree. "Jordan's been asking about you too."

"Wait, really?"

"Dude, they literally did their senior project on the Great **Sphinx** of Giza. They're into the same nerdy Egyptology stuff you are. Go talk to them."

Maya blinked. "How do you know that's what I'm into?"

"We've been in the same history class for three years, Maya." Marcus's voice softened. "You think I haven't noticed?"

Another lightning strike. Closer this time. The bass from the party thumped against Maya's chest like a second heartbeat.

"What if I say something stupid?" she whispered.

"Then you say something stupid. Who cares?" Marcus checked his phone. "I gotta head home before the storm hits. But seriously? Jordan's been reading that same massive book about ancient Egypt during lunch all week. They keep looking up at you, then looking down really fast. It's painful, honestly."

He fist-bumped her shoulder and walked toward the street.

Maya stood alone under the palm tree, rain starting to fall. Her palms were still sweaty. Her phone was at 2%. Jordan was somewhere in that house, probably thinking nobody would ever talk to them about hieroglyphics and pharaohs and 4,500-year-old limestone statues.

Maya took a breath. She grabbed her portable charger. She walked toward the party.

She'd figure out what to say when she got there.