Sphinx in the Shallows

Maya's palms were sweating. Again. She wiped them on her beach towel for the third time, watching Kai laugh with his friends by the pool. He'd transferred to Lincoln High two months ago and already had everyone charmed — teachers, jocks, even Lily who never liked anyone.

The water glimmered like crushed diamonds in the July sun. Everyone was in the pool except her. She'd forgotten her swimsuit. Or that's what she'd told Jenna when she texted that she *had* to come anyway. Kai would be there. That was the whole point.

"Hey."

Maya jumped. Kai stood over her, dripping wet, grinning like he knew something she didn't. His hair was plastered to his forehead and he smelled like chlorine and something minty. "You gonna swim or just guard towels all day?"

"Forgot my suit," she lied. It came out squeaky.

"Bummer." He sat beside her on the lounge chair, close enough that their arms almost touched. Maya's heart did something that felt physically unsafe. "You okay? You look like you're solving for X."

"Just thinking."

"About?"

She shrugged. What was she supposed to say — that she'd been staring at him for forty-five minutes trying to figure out if he was flirting with Lily or just Lily being Lily? That every time he looked at her, her stomach filled with moths?

Kai leaned back, stretching his arms behind his head. "You know what my nana calls me? Sphinx. 'Cause I'm always riddling people out." He smiled sideways. "But you? You're harder to read than I am."

Maya laughed before she could stop herself. "Me? No. I'm an open book. A really boring one with a ripped cover."

"Doubt it."

They sat there for a minute while someone's phone blasted a Doja Cat track from inside. Maya felt weirdly calm, which was new. Usually around crushes she was a human car crash.

"Oh, hey —" Kai reached toward her face.

Maya flinched.

"Sorry, just —"

His thumb grazed the corner of her mouth. "You had... spinach? From the veggie tray?"

She died. She actually died right there on the lounge chair. This was it. This was how she went out.

"It's gone now," Kai said, like it was nothing. Like her entire existence wasn't currently ending. "You good?"

"Yeah," she squeaked. "Great. Perfect. Never better."

He laughed — not mean, just genuinely amused. "You're funny, Maya."

"Funny how?"

"Like, actually funny. Not performance funny." He stood up, extending a hand. "Come on. Jenna probably has an extra suit inside. I'm not letting you miss cannonball championships."

Maya looked at his hand — fingers slender, calloused from where he played guitar, palm warm and slightly damp from the pool. She took it.

"Last one in is a rotten egg!" someone yelled.

"Race you," Kai said.

She didn't win. But as she surfaced from the water, gasping and laughing while Kai splashed her from three feet away, Maya thought maybe being readable wasn't the point anymore. Some things were better unsolved.