Storm Season

The air conditioning at Maya's graduation party had been dead for hours, leaving everyone sticky and half-delirious from the heat. I stood by the sliding glass door, nursing a lukewarm soda and wondering if I could make it to my car without anyone noticing I'd been awkwardly hovering alone for twenty minutes.

"Hey." A voice cut through the humidity. Lucas. THE Lucas. The guy I'd been lowkey obsessed with since junior year AP Bio, when he helped me dissect a fetal pig and didn't make fun of me for almost throwing up. He was wearing that faded band tee that looked impossibly soft, and his hair was doing that thing where it curled slightly at the ends—humidity-induced chaos, but good chaos.

"Hey," I managed, my voice coming out weirdly strangled. Smooth.

"Wanna see something cool?" He motioned toward the backyard.

We stepped out onto the patio where the pool water glowed an eerie blue from the underwater lights. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the air felt charged, like the atmosphere knew something was about to happen. My heart was already doing something concerning in my chest.

Lucas grabbed a coaxial cable from the patio table—apparently Maya's dad had been setting up something for the outdoor TV—and held one end toward the sky. "My older brother taught me this. You can actually feel the charge in the air before a storm."

He held out his other hand, palm up. "Put your hand here."

I did. His hand was warm and slightly calloused from guitar, and when his fingers brushed mine, literal lightning flashed across the sky. Or maybe that was just my nervous system short-circuiting. Either way, the storm broke.

"Did you feel that?" he asked, eyes bright with something I couldn't quite read.

"Yeah," I whispered. Rain started falling—big, dramatic drops that soaked us both instantly. Lucas didn't move away. If anything, he stepped closer.

"Good," he said softly. "Me too."

Everyone else scrambled inside, but we stood there in the downpour like absolute maniacs, and in that moment, soaked to the bone with storm electricity in the air and Lucas's hand still in mine, I realized some things are worth getting a little wet for.