Spinach in the Sphinx's Palm

Maya's palms were sweating so much she was practically leaving wet handprints on everything she touched. Which was exactly why she was currently clutching a red Solo cup like her life depended on it. Her first real house party. Her first chance to finally talk to him.

She'd spent two hours picking her outfit, twenty minutes convincing herself she wasn't being extra, and approximately three seconds before panic set in. Now she was cornered by the snack table, pretending to be fascinated by a bag of spinach chips while mentally rehearsing her opening line.

"Hey, nice party" – too basic. "What's your GPA" – absolutely not. "I like your DNA" – she'd actually said that in a dream once and woken up wanting to die.

"You look like you're hiding from someone."

Maya jumped. Noah. He was standing there, actual Noah, with his dumb perfectly messy hair and his dumb fitted shirt and his dumb everything. She had spinach chip crumbs on her chin. She definitely had spinach chip crumbs on her chin.

"I'm not hiding," she lied. "I'm just... contemplating the existential significance of plant-based junk food."

Noah laughed. Thank god, he laughed. "Deep. I like that. Very sphinx-like mystery energy."

"Sphinx-like energy?"

"Yeah, all enigmatic and wise, like you're about to drop some ancient riddle on me."

Maya's brain short-circuited. She'd prepared for rejection, not sphinx comparisons. "Okay, riddle me this then," she heard herself saying, "what's green, crispy, and currently making me look like I have no social skills?"

Noah grinned. "The spinach chips? Or just existence in general?"

Her stupid phone started blaring that ringtone from the video her little sister had sent her – a dog barking the Mario theme song. She scrambled to silence it, her phone sliding across the table like a hockey puck.

Noah caught it before it fell. His fingers brushed hers. His palms weren't sweating at all.

"Nice ringtone," he said, but he was smiling at her, really smiling at her, like she was funny on purpose. "Hey, some of us are heading to the backyard. You coming?"

She looked at her now-empty cup. At the spinach chips. At the night opening up in front of her, suddenly not so terrifying after all.

"Yeah," Maya said, and wiped her hands on her jeans without thinking. "Yeah, I'm coming."