Riddle of the Sphinx Cat

Maya's brain felt like a **zombie**—totally fried after three hours of TikTok doom-scrolling at 2 AM. She groaned, face-planting onto her keyboard. Again.

"You good?" Kai asked, spinning his chair around. They'd been best friends since seventh grade, before everything got weird.

"Just surviving." Maya sat up, adjusting her crop top. "Junior year is literally eating me alive."

Her **cat**, Luna, jumped onto the desk and knocked over a Red Bull. Perfect.

Meanwhile, Kai was weirdly intense about something. "So, there's this party tonight at Jordan's—"

"Hard pass."

"—and I sorta told everyone you're coming."

Maya stared at him. "You WHAT?"

"Bear with me!" Kai's hands flew up. "I know you've been MIA since the whole... situation. But you can't keep ghosting everyone forever."

The situation. Her stomach twisted. That fight with the friend group. The way she'd frozen, couldn't speak up for herself, then just... stopped showing up.

"I don't have anything to wear," Maya deflected. "My style's mid."

"Wear that vintage oversized blazer thing. You always look fire in it."

Hours later, Maya stood in Jordan's basement, clutching a solo cup like her life depended on it. The **cable** from someone's gaming setup snaked across the floor. Someone's older brother had set up a makeshift photo booth with a weird backdrop—an old sheet painted to look like the **sphinx**, complete with that riddle meme: "What walks on four legs in the morning..."

"Yo, isn't that your cat's name?" Kai pointed at Luna photos on her lock screen. "Luna?"

"No, her full name's Lunafreya. Don't judge."

Jordan appeared, grinning. "Truth or dare, Maya?"

Her heart raced. This was it. The moment she'd either bail or finally show up.

"Dare."

"I dare you to tell everyone what you're actually afraid of. Like, the real thing."

The room went quiet. Maya's palms got sweaty. But then she saw Kai, giving her that tiny nod that meant *I've got your back.*

"I'm afraid," she said, voice steady, "that if I stop being the quiet one, the one who never makes waves, you guys won't actually like who I am."

Silence. Then someone started clapping. Then Jordan.

"That took guts," Jordan said. "For real."

Later, sprawled on the roof with Kai, watching the sunrise, Maya breathed. The **bear** of anxiety she'd been carrying for months finally felt lighter.

"You good?" Kai asked.

"Yeah." She smiled. "Actually, I'm great."