Riddles Under Orange Skies

Maya's hair was basically the color of a traffic cone — bright orange, the kind that demanded attention everywhere she went. She'd been dyeing it since seventh grade, a middle finger to her parents' boring beige suburban world. But today, staring at her reflection in the gym bathroom mirror, she wondered if the orange was less rebellion and more armor.

Outside, Leo was waiting, leaning against the old oak tree with his usual skateboard-stoner vibe. He'd been her best friend since they were six, back when friendship meant sharing fruit snacks and not caring who was cool. Now? Everything was weird.

"Your phone's about to die," Leo said, gesturing at her phone, which was dangling from a fraying charging cable like it was barely holding on. "Also, you're gonna ask him."

"Am not." She shoved her phone in her pocket. The cable had seen better years, kinda like their friendship.

"Are too. You've been talking about that sphinx riddle in English class all week." Leo kicked at a pebble. "How does it go again? 'What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?'"

"Humans, dumbass. We crawl, then walk, then use canes. But Mr. Evans was being all deep about it representing our journey through life." Maya rolled her eyes, but her stomach did that thing it always did when thinking about transformation. About how she was supposed to be becoming someone, but mostly just felt like a collection of awkward transitions.

The sunset was bleeding orange across the sky, the same color as her hair, and suddenly she couldn't breathe right.

"Leo?" she asked, her voice barely there.

"Yeah?" He looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Palm reading. Let's do that dumb thing where we read each other's palms and pretend we're mystical. Like we used to."

Leo smiled, and it was the realest thing she'd seen all day. He held out his hand.

"Your lifeline's short," she said, tracing the line on his palm.

"Yours too. Good. We'll go out together, then."

Maya laughed, and the orange sky didn't feel so heavy anymore.