The Fortune Teller's Secret

Maya's palms were sweating. Again. She wiped them on her jeans, leaving dark damp spots that definitely weren't helping her vibe.

"Your hair line reveals... uncertainty." Chloe's voice dropped an octave, doing her whole mystical act. "But your palm tells me different."

Maya and her friends sat cross-legged in Chloe's bedroom, surrounded by twinkling LED lights and the faint smell of vanilla candles. This was Chloe's new thing since she got suspended for skipping — palm reading. Somehow it was actually working. Everyone thought Chloe was psychic now.

"Show me," Maya said, extending her hand.

Chloe studied Maya's palm like it contained the answers to next week's bio exam. "You're worried about something. Something... small but huge at the same time."

Maya's stomach flipped. How did she know about the text she'd sent to Kai at midnight? The one he still hadn't answered?

"Okay, but what about THIS?" Chloe grabbed Maya's other hand. "You've been taking vitamins. The good kind. Your mom's stash?"

"What? No—" Maya started, but Chloe was already nodding knowingly.

"And your hair..." Chloe reached out and pulled a tiny piece of gray fur from Maya's sleeve. "Cat hair. You're spending way too much time with Mittens. Who needs a boyfriend when you have a cat?"

Everyone laughed. Maya felt her face burning. But then she realized — Chloe wasn't actually reading palms. She was just noticing stuff. The vitamin bottle on Maya's bathroom counter. The cat hair that was literally always on her clothes. The nervous nail-biting that probably gave away the whole "worried about a text" thing.

"You're not psychic," Maya said, suddenly seeing it. "You're just... observant."

Chloe winked. "Same difference, really."

Later that night, Maya's phone buzzed. Kai had finally replied: "Hey! Sorry, I fell asleep early. Want to get boba tomorrow?"

She stared at her palm in the moonlight, tracing the lines Chloe had pretended held secrets. Maybe they did. Or maybe secrets were just things people noticed when they actually paid attention.

Either way, she had boba tomorrow. And that was definitely worth sweating her palms over.