Palm Readings & Party Crashes

Maya yanked the bucket **hat** lower over her forehead. Maybe if she looked like a walking thirst trap, nobody would notice she was literally vibrating out of her skin. First house party. Sophomore year. This was supposed to be her glow-up era, not her panic-attack-in-the-bathroom era.

Her **iPhone** buzzed against her thigh. Lexi's texts were rolling in like a fever dream.

r u there yet???

pretend ur drunk if ur awkward lol

i heard jasons gonna be there 😏

Maya's palms were basically swamp water at this point. She gripped her Solo cup like a lifeline, though she'd been nursing the same flat Pepsi for forty-five minutes. The kitchen was packed with juniors she'd been Instagram stalking since seventh grade, all looking effortlessly cool while she stood there like someone's weird cousin who wandered in from the wrong dimension.

Then she saw it—a tuxedo **cat** perched on the kitchen counter like it owned the place.

"That's Nacho," someone said behind her. "He judges everyone. It's fine."

Maya spun around. It was Jason. THE Jason. Blue-eyed, hair-fully-floppy Jason, who she'd had a crush on since the volleyball Instagram incident of eighth grade.

"Your **palm** is sweaty," he said, gesturing at her hand with his red cup. "You good?"

And then—her brain short-circuited. Instead of saying something normal like "yeah just nervous lol" or making a joke or literally anything else, Maya blurted: "Want me to read it? I've got this app—"

She held up her phone like an absolute loser.

Jason stared at her for one eternal second. Then he grinned. All crooked and everything.

"Sure."

They ended up on the back porch, phone light between them like a campfire. Maya's palms stopped sweating somewhere between the fake prediction that he'd meet a tall stranger and the moment he said, "Wait, this app says I'll fall in love with someone I meet tonight?"

She laughed. A real laugh.

"These apps are totally rigged," she said. "But yeah. That's what it says."

Jason looked at her. Actually looked at her.

"Guess we'll see about that."

Her phone buzzed again. Lexi: SO????????

Maya turned it off.

The hat stayed on. But for the first time all night, she didn't need it.