Sphinx in a Snapback

The papaya sat on the cafeteria table like an alien artifact, bright orange and strangely freckled. I poked it with my plastic fork.

"Dude, just try it," Jordan said, scrolling through TikTok with their usual chaotic energy. "It's not gonna bite."

I adjusted my snapback—brim backward, obviously—because the hat was basically a security blanket at this point. "I don't do exotic fruits, Jordan. You know this. I'm basic pizza and shame energy."

Jordan rolled their eyes so hard I almost felt it. "You're sixteen, not six. Your palate is in a committed relationship with mediocrity."

They weren't wrong. But something about junior year had me feeling like I was solving a sphinx riddle every morning: What walks on two legs, pretends to have everything figured out, and is actually one wrong move from total social disaster? Answer: Me.

"Whatever." I took a bite. It tasted like... melon's weird cousin who studied abroad.

"And?" Jordan raised an eyebrow.

"It's... not terrible?" I admitted, surprised. "Like, if melon and mango had a glow-up baby."

"See? Growth." Jordan's phone buzzed. They went pale. Like, actual vampire energy.

"What?"

"It's Riley." They swallowed hard. "She wants to hang out. After what happened at homecoming."

Ah. The incident. The one where Jordan had come out as nonbinary at the dance, and their former friend group had basically acted like Jordan had grown a second head instead of just new pronouns. I'd seen Jordan bear so much crap that semester—whispers in the hallway, "confused" looks in class, the performative allies who'd suddenly forgotten how to use they/them pronouns.

"You gonna ghost?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"I can't, man. What if I say the wrong thing? What if it's awkward? What if—"

"What if you're overthinking and she just misses her friend?" I nudged the papaya toward them. "Try it. Growth, remember?"

Jordan stared at the fruit like it held all the answers. Then at their phone. Then back at me.

"Since when did you become the wise one?"

"Since I started hanging out with someone who actually makes me think about stuff." I adjusted my hat again, but this time I pulled the brim forward. "We could both use some growth."

Jordan took a bite of papaya, made a face, then typed something back.

"She's coming over after school."

"Good." I nodded. "Now let me get another bite of that glow-up melon before you finish it."

We sat there, sharing the papaya, waiting for whatever came next. The sphinx riddle hadn't been solved, but maybe that wasn't the point. Maybe you just kept trying new things until something stuck.

Even if it did taste like melon's weird cousin.