Static Electricity

Maya's palms were sweating—not the cute, glistening kind you see in movies, but the gross, clammy kind that makes you wipe your hands on your jeans every thirty seconds.

"You're up next," said Tanya, who'd been reading palms at her sweet sixteen since seventh period when she'd discovered her mom's tarot cards. "Your love line is... interesting."

Interesting. The universal code for "your romantic future is a dumpster fire."

Thunder rumbled outside, shaking the windowpanes. The partygoers erupted in oohs, someone cranking Tyler, The Creator to drown it out.

Then it happened—lightning flashed, and in that split-second illumination, Maya locked eyes with Isaac from AP Bio across the room. He was already watching her.

Static electricity.

The kind they talk about in science class but don't tell you it hits like a punch to the chest. Maya's phone buzzed in her pocket—him, obviously—but suddenly the front door burst open.

A cat sauntered in. Not even anyone's cat. Just this random calico like it owned the place, which honestly? Big mood.

"Wait, whose cat is that?" someone yelled.

The cat beelined for Maya, weaving through legs and spilled cups like it was on a mission, then proceeded to climb her denim skirt like a tree.

"Oh my GOD, my Louis Vuitton!" Tanya shrieked as claws met fabric.

Maya was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe, and there was Isaac, pushing through the crowd to help her, and suddenly her sweaty palms were the last thing on her mind.

"Need some backup?" he asked, reaching for the cat.

And just as lightning struck again—CRACK, BOOM, the whole room screaming—his hand brushed hers. Not accidental. Intentional.

Static electricity, but real this time.

"Your palm," she said later, when they'd somehow ended up on the back porch, the cat asleep on his lap like it had planned this entire thing. "Let me see it."

He held it out, grinning. "You believe in that stuff?"

"No," she said, tracing his lifeline with her thumb. "But I'm starting to believe in universe-orchestrated cat interventions."

Thunder rolled softly in the distance. Whatever Tanya had seen in Maya's palm earlier? Yeah. Interesting indeed.