Summer of Sweaty Palms

The humidity in Maya's backyard was offensive levels of extra. Like, respect to her for throwing the first rager of sophomore year, but my hair was already puffing up like I'd stuck a fork in an electrical outlet. I wiped my palm on my denim shorts—again—and checked my phone. No text from Leo.

"You're doing that thing," Kae said, flopping onto the lounge chair beside me. "The thing where your face goes all 🥺 when you stare at your phone like it's gonna magically produce your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend. We talked twice at the arcade." I shoved my phone in my pocket. "And my face is not doing 🥺. It's doing 🙃. There's a difference."

"Sure, Jan." Kae cracked open a soda. "Meanwhile, you've been checking his snaps every five minutes since he left that fire emoji on your post last night. That man is playing you like a whole game of chess. He's a fox, babe. Cunning. Strategic. Probably talking to five girls right now."

I hated that she was probably right. Leo had this whole mysterious aesthetic down pat—always said the perfect things, disappeared for days, then popped back up like nothing happened. It was maddening. It was thrilling. It was absolutely going to end in disaster.

"Okay, but watch this." Maya appeared from behind the snack table with a deck of cards and a suspicious grin. "My cousin taught me how to read palms at camp. It's totally legit, I called three people's situations already today."

"Palm readings? Really?" Kae scoffed. "What is this, 2003?"

"Shut up, give me your hand." Maya grabbed my wrist before I could retreat. "Let's see... heart line, head line..." She traced the creases on my palm with exaggerated focus. "Oh, wow. This is interesting."

"What?" I tried to pull away, but she held tight.

"You're gonna meet someone soon. Like, really soon. But here's the thing—" Maya's eyes glinted with mischief. "He's not who you think it is. The cards are showing me... unexpected connections. People you've already noticed but didn't notice NOTICING you, you feel me?"

"That made zero sense," I said, but my stomach did this little flip thing.

Just then, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around, and there was Leo. But he wasn't looking at me. He was looking past me, at someone behind my back.

"Hey," Leo said, then stepped around me like I was furniture. "Kae, right? From bio? You still have my notes from Tuesday."

Oh.

OH.

The universe was absolutely cooked sometimes. I'd spent the entire semester lowkey obsessing over Leo's whole tortured artist vibe, and meanwhile he was trying to shoot his shot with my best friend the whole time. The betrayal. The audacity. The—I didn't even have words.

I had to bear it. I had to stand there and watch Kae's face go from 😲 to 😏 in like three seconds flat. Watch her actually smile back at him. Watch them start talking about something that wasn't me.

Maya caught my eye from across the circle and mouthed, "I TOLD YOU."

I wiped my sweaty palm one last time and grabbed a handful of chips from the bowl. Whatever. Sophomore year was gonna be a whole journey, and clearly my intuition was trash. But at least I had snacks.