Summer Storms and Sharp Tongues

Maya's older sister was always the pretty one. The one with the palm reader at the carnival who told her she'd have an adventurous life. Maya got stuck with the lady who said she'd have "many trials." Cool. Thanks.

Now here she was, seventeen and spending July at Aunt Carmen's in Florida, where the air felt like hot soup and her so-called friend Jess had spent the entire trip FaceTiming her new boyfriend back home.

"You gonna finish that papaya?" Jess asked, not looking up from her phone.

Maya pushed the fruit across the patio table. "Whatever."

Aunt Carmen called from the kitchen: "That fox from next door asked about you again."

Maya rolled her eyes. Connor was nineteen and worked at the marina and had absolutely zero chill about his flirting. Last week he'd told Maya she had "electric eyes" which was somehow both the worst and best thing anyone had ever said to her.

Jess finally looked up. "You gonna hang out with him?"

"I don't know." Maya stared at the storm clouds gathering over the bay. "Maybe."

"He's kinda old for you."

Maya's chest tightened. This is what Jess did lately — these little digs that sounded like concern but felt like something else. Like she couldn't stand Maya having anything that wasn't about Jess.

The sky purpled. Thunder rumbled like something huge was moving underwater.

"Whatever," Maya said again. "I'm going inside."

She'd barely closed the sliding door when lightning cracked the sky open — white-gold and absolutely textbook dramatic. The patio lights flickered. Through the glass, she saw Jess jump, phone flying from her hand.

Connor knocked on the door five minutes later, soaked from the sudden downpour, holding something wrapped in a plastic bag.

"Your aunt said you like these," he said, grinning. "Also figured you might need rescued from awkward silence out there."

He'd brought mango popsicles from the corner store. They sat on the front steps and ate them while rain drummed the roof, and Maya thought about how Jess was probably still outside, phone-faced and oblivious.

"You okay?" Connor asked.

Maya realized she was smiling. "Yeah. Actually."

The storm passed. The air smelled wet and green. And okay, maybe the palm reader was right about the trials part. But somehow, Maya thought, watching the way the lightning still flickered faint in the distance, she might be figuring out the adventure part too.