Riddles and Orange Soda

The cafeteria stretched before me like a social minefield. I clutched my tray, heart doing that stupid fluttery thing whenever I saw Jordan sitting alone again. Three weeks of radio silence since The Incident, and suddenly my best friend was a stranger.

Someone shoved past me, splashing **water** from a fountain bottle onto my sleeve. "Watch it, freshman."

I dried it on my jeans, eyes still locked on Jordan's orange hoodie across the room. That color used to be our thing — matching hoodies, dumb inside jokes, us against the world. Now Jordan sat with Riley and her crew, laughing at something I couldn't hear.

Then Riley pointed at me and whispered something. Jordan's expression didn't change — that unreadable **sphinx** face I'd started seeing way too much lately. Enigmatic. Distant. Like some riddle I couldn't solve anymore.

"You gonna stand there all day?" My brother Marcus appeared beside me, looking like he'd just rolled out of bed. "You're staring like a total creep."

"Shut up, Marcus." I made myself move toward our usual table, but my feet had other ideas. They carried me right up to Jordan.

"Hey."

Jordan looked up, eyes flickering with something — surprise? Annoyance? "Hey."

"Can we... talk?"

Riley snorted. "Ooh, drama."

Jordan stood up, walked out with me trailing behind. The hallway was quieter, filled with the murmur of other kids' lives.

"So?" Jordan's arms were crossed, defensive.

"I miss you." The words tumbled out before I could chicken out. "Like, a lot. And I know things got weird after... you know. But you're still my **friend**. My best friend. And I don't want to lose that over some dumb misunderstanding."

Jordan's expression cracked. That sphinx facade fell away. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?"

"It wasn't a misunderstanding, Maya. I was upset that you didn't even notice something was wrong until I stopped talking to you."

I stared. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Jordan's shoulders dropped. "But I miss you too. And I've been bearing — like, literally having to **bear** this whole thing, and it sucks."

I snorted. "You did not just use 'bear' as a verb unironically."

"Shut up, you know what I mean." Jordan cracked a smile, and just like that, the wall came down.

"Want to share my orange soda?" I pulled the bottle from my bag. "It's the good stuff."

Jordan's eyes lit up. "You remembered."

"Of course I remembered. It's literally your favorite thing."

"Okay, fine." Jordan took the bottle. "We're cool. But you're buying tomorrow."

"Deal." I exhaled, feeling like I could breathe again. "Also, your hair looks really good with that orange hoodie. The contrast? It's working."

Jordan rolled but smiled anyway. "You're such a dork."

"Your dork though."