Running on Empty

Maya's thumb hovered over her iPhone screen, the blue light illuminating her sweaty palms in the darkness of the bathroom stall. Outside, the bass of whatever generic rap song was playing thumped against the door like an impatient heartbeat. This was it—her first real house party, the kind that would define her entire social existence for the rest of high school, and she was hiding.

Her cat, Miso, would be judging her so hard right now. That cat had more confidence in one whisker than Maya had in her entire body. Miso didn't care what anyone thought. Miso would just walk into a room and demand attention like she owned the place. Maya, on the other hand, had spent the last twenty minutes alternating between hyperventilating and doom-scrolling through Instagram stories of everyone having way more fun than she was.

The bathroom door flew open, making her jump.

"Maya? You good in here?" It was Jordan, the host, looking concerned and flushed and holding one of those red plastic cups like it was a prop from every teen movie ever.

"Yeah, totally," Maya lied. "Just... fixing my hair."

"Bull," Jordan said, leaning against the doorframe. "You've been in here forever. Riley's looking for you, by the way. He keeps asking if you're okay."

Riley. The entire reason she'd come. The guy she'd been crushing on since seventh grade, who'd finally noticed her existence approximately three days ago when they'd been assigned as lab partners. Who was probably wondering why she'd disappeared.

Maya's stomach did that thing it did when she was about to do something incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. The line between those two things was basically nonexistent.

"You know what?" Maya stood up, grabbed her iPhone, and shoved it in her pocket. "No more hiding."

"That's the spirit!" Jordan grinned. "But also, heads up—Riley's out back. Cooper brought his bulldog and it somehow got into the neighbor's pasture, and now there's like, an actual bull involved? It's a whole situation."

Maya stared. "A bull? Like, the animal?"

"Long story. suburban living, am I right? Anyway, Riley's out there trying to help, and if you want to make a move, now's literally the weirdest possible moment, which is kind of perfect, honestly."

And suddenly Maya was running—not away, but toward whatever weird, messy, ridiculous moment was happening. Running toward the possibility of embarrassing herself completely, running toward Riley and whatever this bull situation was, running toward her life instead of watching it through a screen.

Miso would be proud.