Riddles in the Sand

I'd been **running** from it all summer — from the truth sitting heavy in my chest, from Kai's gaze across every bonfire, from the way my best friend kept looking at me like I was a puzzle he couldn't solve.

"You're like a freaking **sphinx**," I told him, flopping onto the beach towel beside him. "All brooding silence and mysterious vibes. What's actually going on inside that head?"

Kai just shrugged, the movement sending his curls tumbling over his eyes. That was his thing lately. Not talking. Just existing beside me, leaving me to overanalyze every tiny shift in his expression.

My phone buzzed. The group chat was blowing up.

'OMG did you hear about Sarah and Jordan?'

'Someone said they saw them behind the gym'

'I nominate Maya to **spy** on them during lunch tomorrow'

I groaned. Because of course I was the designated spy. The reliable one. The one who could gather intel without getting caught. The one nobody looked at twice.

The bonfire crackled, sending sparks toward the star-clotted sky. Someone's Bluetooth speaker cut out mid-song, and Marcus started fumbling with the **cable**, cursing under his breath. The silence that fell was thick with all the things nobody was saying.

Kai's hand brushed mine as he reached for a marshmallow bag. My **palm** went instantly sweaty, my heart doing that stupid flutter-kick thing it always did around him lately. I pulled my hand back fast. Too fast.

"Maya." His voice was low, serious. The sphinx was finally speaking.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you keep pulling away?"

The question hung there, suspended between us like the smoke rising from the fire. Behind us, someone laughed. A guitar started up somewhere down the beach. The world kept moving, but in this tiny circle of firelight, everything had stopped.

"I'm not," I lied.

"You are." Kai turned toward me, firelight catching the gold in his eyes. "You've been different all summer. Like you're running from something."

I swallowed hard. Because he was right. I was running — from the truth that had nothing to do with friendship and everything to do with the way my stomach flipped every time he said my name.

"Maybe," I whispered, "some things are worth running toward too."

Kai's soft intake of breath was the only sound I needed. The sphinx had solved his own riddle, and somehow, in the space between heartbeats, I had too.