Palm Trees Don't Lie

The pool deck at Tyler's house smelled like chlorine and expensive coconut sunscreen. I stood near the edge, nursing a lukewarm Sprite, watching everyone else act like this was exactly where they belonged. Not me. I was fourteen and convinced my left eyebrow was uneven.

Then Dylan pushed Jason into the water.

Jason surfaced, gasping, while Dylan and his crew howled. "Total accident, bro!" Dylan called, but the grin on his face said otherwise. He'd been pulling this bull all night—trip someone, then claim it was a joke; spill a drink, then say someone bumped him.

I hated how everyone just let it slide. Dylan was popular, which apparently meant being a jerk came with the territory.

My cousin had taught me palm reading over the summer—mostly for fun, but she swore by it. I grabbed Maya's hand without thinking. "Let me see yours."

She laughed but extended her hand. "Okay, fortune teller. What's my future?"

I traced the lines on her palm, pretending to know what I was doing. "You're gonna meet someone tall, dark, and mysterious."

"Someone tall, dark, and annoying?" Dylan's voice cut through. "That's some serious bull you're spinning."

He grabbed my wrist, turned my hand over. "Read mine then, genius."

I looked at his palm and then up at him. Something shifted. I didn't feel like the weird girl with uneven eyebrows anymore. I felt angry.

"Your lifeline's short," I said, loud enough for people to hear. "Maybe stop being such a dick before it runs out."

The deck went silent. Even Jason, still dripping water by the pool, stopped laughing.

Dylan's face went red. Whatever. Let it.

Later, Maya found me by the palm trees in the front yard. "That was badass," she said.

"I'm probably dead socially now."

"Nah." She grinned. "Jason says you're his new hero. And honestly? Someone needed to call Dylan on his bull."

I looked at my palm in the streetlight. The lines were still there, unchanged. But somehow, everything else had shifted.

"You wanna teach me that palm reading thing?" Maya asked.

I smiled. Maybe high school wouldn't be so terrible after all.