Storm Season

Maya pulled her beanie down lower, practically disappearing inside its gray folds. The hat had become her armor against freshman year — a literal and metaphorical shield she could hide behind whenever things got too real. Too often, lately.

"You're doing it again," Jordan said, flopping onto her bed and nearly crushing Mochi, her fat orange cat who gave an offended yowl before abandoning ship. "The disappearing act."

Maya shrugged, scrolling through her iphone with practiced disinterest. "Not disappearing. Just... existing. There's a difference."

"Whatever you say, Houdini." Jordan rolled onto her back, holding her phone above her face. "Okay, but you're seeing what Lucas posted, right?"

Maya's thumb froze. Lucas. The reason she'd been wearing the hat pretty much 24/7 since homecoming, when she'd finally worked up the courage to DM him and he'd left her on read for three straight days.

Outside, the sky had turned that weird purple-green color that meant trouble. Thunder rumbled low in her chest, like the atmosphere was clearing its throat before something big.

"He posted that photo from the party Friday," Jordan continued, merciless. "You know, the one you didn't go to because you were 'busy'?" She made air quotes with her free hand. "He looks genuinely good, Maya. Like, suspiciously good."

A crack of lightning split the sky, sudden and blinding, illuminating Jordan's grin in freeze-frame.

"Cool," Maya managed. "Great for him."

"You're impossible." Jordan sat up. "You know what you need? You need to get out of your head. Come over tonight. My cousin's bringing his dog — that golden retriever puppy I showed you? We can order pizza and pretend we don't care about anything."

Maya hesitated. The hat suddenly felt too tight. The iphone in her hand felt like a brick of missed opportunities and unsaid words. Storm season had always been her favorite — everything felt more possible when the world was shaking itself apart.

"You know what?" Maya pulled off the hat, shaking out her hair. "Yeah. I'm in."

Outside, rain finally broke, sudden and fierce against the window. Mochi crept back onto the bed, thoroughly unimpressed by the atmospheric drama. And somewhere in the space between one heartbeat and the next, Maya decided that maybe freshman year didn't need armor after all. Maybe it just needed rain, and pizza, and a friend who knew exactly which buttons to push.

And okay, maybe she'd still check Lucas's story later. Baby steps.