Riddle in the Orange Hoodie

Maya's heart hammered against her ribs like it was trying to escape. The house party raged around her — bass thumping, red solo cups everywhere, someone probably throwing up in the bathroom. She shouldn't have come. She'd spent forty minutes on her makeup only to stand in a corner like a total NPC.

Then she saw him. The guy in the orange hoodie, leaning against the back wall like he owned the awkwardness. Not hot, exactly, but interesting in a way that made her stomach do that annoying fluttery thing.

"You look like you're plotting everyone's murder," he said, sliding up beside her. "Or maybe just silently judging their taste in music."

Maya snorted. "Both. Definitely both."

"I'm Leo." He gestured at a group of girls performing what looked like an orchestrated TikTok dance. "They're like ancient Greek sphinxes, you know? All perfect and mysterious and ready to devour you if you can't answer their riddle."

"Which riddle?"

"'Are you cool enough to exist in our orbit?' Spoiler: nobody is."

A laugh burst out of Maya before she could stop it. "I've been bearing that anxiety since seventh grade."

"Well, bear it no longer." Leo grabbed her hand. "I'm about to commit actual social suicide. Wanna come?"

Before she could answer, he marched to the center of the room and started dancing. Not the cool, composed dancing everyone else was doing. Full-on, arms-flailing, terrible dad dancing. The kind that should have been embarrassing but was somehow... fearless?

Maya's face burned. But then something in her chest loosened.

She stepped forward and joined him.

They danced like absolute idiots while everyone stared. Some whispered. Some filmed. But for the first time all night, Maya wasn't worried about being cool. She was just... present. The orange hoodie blurred in her peripheral vision as she spun, laughing so hard her sides hurt.

"You're insane," she gasped afterward, collapsed on the back porch steps while the party raged inside.

"You're the one who joined me." Leo grinned, sweat-dampened hair sticking to his forehead. "That was kinda legendary, actually."

"Yeah," Maya admitted, something warm and unfamiliar blooming in her chest. "It kinda was."