Palm Reader's Secret

Maya's palms were sweating. Again.

She wiped them on her jeans for the third time, scrolling through her secret Instagram account @RiverdaleHighSpy. 472 followers. Not bad for someone who'd started it just to feel less invisible.

"Maya! You gonna bear my bad news or what?" Jenna yelled from across the cafeteria, flopping into the seat opposite her. "Tyler knows."

Maya's stomach dropped. "Knows what?"

"That you like him!" Jenna dramatically face-planted onto the table. "Someone told him you've been staring at him in bio for three weeks straight. I'm literally dying."

"I wasn't staring!"

"You were totally staring. Anyway, Lexi's having a palm reading party Friday because her aunt bought her this weird fortune teller kit from the thrift store. You should come. Maybe Tyler will be there and you can stop being such a spy about everything and actually talk to him."

Maya considered deleting @RiverdaleHighSpy right then and there. The account had started as a joke - posting mildly embarrassing cafeteria photos and "investigating" who was dating who. But now she had access to everyone's DMs confiding their crushes, their secrets, their drama. It felt powerful until it didn't.

Friday night, Lexi's basement smelled like coconut wax and teen anxiety. Tyler was there, looking unfairly good in a gray hoodie.

"Your turn," Lexi announced, grabbing Maya's hand and spreading it dramatically under a lamp. "Ooh, interesting life line."

Everyone laughed. Maya's face burned.

"And here..." Lexi traced a line. "You're hiding something big. A secret identity."

The room went quiet.

"Just kidding!" Lexi chirped. "Or am I?"

Tyler's phone buzzed. He frowned, then looked up, his eyes locking with Maya's. "Did you see what @RiverdaleHighSpy just posted?"

Maya's heart stopped. She'd queued a post about someone's crush confession before leaving. Not Tyler's confession - but someone else's that would implicate her as the account owner.

"No?" she squeaked.

"Someone just figured out who runs it," Tyler said quietly. "They posted screenshots."

Running was Maya's first instinct - out the door, down the street, away from the inevitable fallout. But instead she stood up, her legs trembling.

"It's me."

The silence stretched. Then Jenna started laughing. "We literally already knew. You're the only one who notices everything."

"You knew?"

"Everyone knew," Tyler said, smiling. "We were just waiting for you to come clean. Also, your bio posts? Kinda obvious."

Maya's palms stopped sweating. "So... you're not mad?"

"Dude," said Lexi. "You're the school spy. That's lowkey iconic."

Maybe being invisible wasn't the alternative. Maybe being seen - really seen - wasn't as terrifying as she'd always believed.

"Your palms," Maya said to Tyler later that night, when they were sitting on Lexi's front porch steps. "Let me see them."

He held out his hand, and she traced the lines like she'd seen Lexi do earlier. "What do they say?"

She looked up, grinning. "That you should probably stop being so surprised I run a gossip account."

"Fair. Also... I knew you were staring in bio."

"Shut up."

"I didn't mind."