Riddle of the Sphinx Snap

Maya's palms were sweating — like, actually dripping — as she stared at the notification. Her crush, Jason, had just posted a Story. Was she being a total creep by watching it immediately? Ugh, social media made everyone feel like a spy in their own lives.

She swiped up. There it was: Jason at the Greek museum exhibit, posing next to a massive sphinx statue with that annoyingly perfect grin. Caption: "Bet you can't solve this riddle 😉".

Oh, it was ON.

Maya's best friend since kindergarten, Chloe, sat beside her at the cafeteria table, aggressively picking spinach out of her teeth. "Dude, are you plotting again? Your 'scheming face' looks like you're constipated."

"Jason posted a riddle," Maya whispered, nodding toward her phone. "And I'm going to be the one who solves it."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You're down bad. Just admit you want an excuse to DM him."

"Shut UP, I am NOT down bad!" Maya hissed. "I just... appreciate a good intellectual challenge. From a very attractive person. Who happens to have nice hair."

"Right. Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night." Chloe popped a spinach leaf into her mouth like it was popcorn. "So what's the riddle?"

Maya squinted at Jason's Story again. He hadn't even posted the riddle part yet. He was clearly building suspense. That manipulative genius.

Her phone buzzed. Jason had posted the next Story: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"

"Oh, that's the classic sphinx riddle!" Maya practically shouted, causing several sophomores to glance over. "It's humans! Babies crawl, adults walk, and old people use canes!"

Chloe shook her head. "Maya, you absolute nerd. That's not the riddle. That's the EXAMPLE riddle. Look at the next Story."

Maya's heart did that fluttery thing it always did when she saw Jason's name. The next Story appeared: "Okay here's the REAL riddle: I'm everywhere but nowhere. I see everything but say nothing. I connect everyone but touch no one. What am I?"

Maya's brain short-circuited. Was this about... the internet? WiFi? Social media? Or was it some deep philosophical metaphor?

"It's the internet!" she typed, hitting send before she could overthink it.

Almost immediately, Jason replied: "Close. But I was thinking 'a mirror'. Though your answer works too lol"

Maya groaned and face-planted onto the cafeteria table. "I'm so dumb. Of course it's a mirror. That's actually poetic."

"You're not dumb," Chloe said, unusually gentle. "You're just... overthinking it. Kind of like how you overthink whether Jason likes you back."

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. As they gathered their trays, Chloe's golden retriever obsession made her pause. "Wait, did you see Jason's dog in that Story? The golden one?"

Maya pulled up the Story again. Sure enough, behind the sphinx statue, Jason's dog — a ridiculously cute golden retriever — was photobombing like a champ.

"Okay," Maya admitted, "the dog IS cute. But Jason is cuter."

"You're hopeless." Chloe looped her arm through Maya's. "But don't worry, you're my favorite hopeless romantic. Now let's go to class before we're late. Again."