The Digital Oracle

Maya's phone buzzed on her nightstand, the screen lighting up with another notification that made her stomach twist. Another perfect Instagram post from Brianna, somehow managing to look effortless while Maya had spent twenty minutes just trying to get her eyeliner even.

"You coming to Kayla's party tonight?" her mom called from downstairs. "I left those vitamin D supplements on the counter. Don't forget them!"

Maya rolled her eyes so hard it almost hurt. Like a vitamin was going to fix her social anxiety or the fact that she'd been ghosted by Tyler for three weeks straight. She grabbed her iPhone, checking the group chat. Everyone was going. Of course they were.

The party was exactly what Maya expected: too loud, too crowded, too everything. She hovered near the snack table, pretending to be deeply interested in a bag of chips while her phone battery drained from all the nervous refreshing.

"Hey!" Zara appeared beside her, grinning. "Check this out." She held up her phone. "I found this palm reading app. It's supposed to be scary accurate."

"Palm reading? Seriously?" Maya raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like total BS."

"Just try it!" Zara grabbed Maya's hand, turning her palm upward. The app's camera scanned her skin lines, and after several dramatic seconds, a notification popped up.

"'Your future holds unexpected clarity through something you thought was broken,'" Zara read aloud, then burst out laughing. "Okay, that's so vague it could mean anything."

But Maya couldn't laugh. Something about those words hit her differently. Her phone screen cracked two weeks ago when she dropped it after Tyler's text, and she'd been too embarrassed to get it fixed. But what if...

She pulled out her phone, fingers trembling as she opened her photos. scrolled back to before the crack appeared. There it was—a screenshot she'd meant to delete. Tyler's text hadn't been a ghosting at all. He'd sent a voice message that had failed to load, and she'd been too panicked to check her sent folder.

The vitamin supplements, the palm reading app, her stupid iPhone—all of it had led here. Maya pressed play, and Tyler's voice came through: "Hey, I know this is random, but do you want to grab bubble tea tomorrow? My treat."

Maya looked up at Zara, grinning for real this time. "Okay, I take it back. Palm reading is definitely NOT BS."