Sphinx Runaway

Maya's foster cat — a neurotic ginger named Sphinx — was currently running circles around her legs as she sat on her front porch, clutching the acceptance letter from Riverside Academy. Her phone buzzed. Group chat blowing up.

"YO did you get in??"

"Maya's probly crying somewhere rn lol"

She typed back: "got in 🫡" but deleted it. Suddenly her phone felt heavy. Everything felt heavy.

Her mom stepped outside, wearing that bright orange beanie Maya had bought her for Christmas — the one her mom pretended to hate but wore every time she felt anxious. Which was always, lately.

"They called," her mom said. "Financial aid package's not enough."

Maya's stomach dropped. "But —"

"We can figure it out. Maybe. If you take the bus. If I pick up weekends at the diner. If your dad actually sends his child support payments for once instead of disappearing whenever it's convenient —"

"Mom, stop." Maya stood up. Sphinx bolted, darting across the street like a fuzzy orange bullet.

"Sphinx!" Maya yelled, but the cat was already gone, running toward the old abandoned library downtown.

"I'll get him," Maya said, grabbing her sneakers. But really, she just needed to get out of that house, away from her mom's tired eyes and the envelope on the kitchen table and the reality that her carefully planned future was crumbling before it started.

She found Sphinx perched on a crumbling statue in the library's overgrown garden — some stone creature that looked suspiciously like the Egyptian Sphinx. The cat stared at her with those judgmental yellow eyes.

"You're such a drama queen," Maya told him, scooping him up. His purr vibrated against her chest.

Her phone buzzed again. Her best friend Kai: "Party at Tyler's tonight. Everyone's gonna be there. PLEEEASE come?"

Maya looked at the library's broken windows, at Sphinx nestled in her arms like nothing was wrong, at the hat she'd left on her porch. She could go home and cry. She could go to Tyler's and pretend everything was fine.

Or she could sit here for a minute, in the in-between, where nothing was decided yet.

"Running away with you," she whispered to the cat. "Even if it's just for tonight."

Sphinx purred like he approved.