The Lightning In My Chest

The party at Tyler's house was already dead when I showed up fashionably late—again. Emma was gonna kill me, but my phone had died somewhere between my house and the suburbs, and I'd spent twenty minutes wandering around like a lost puppy trying to find the place.

When I finally walked through the door, the air hit me like a wall. Cheap body spray mixed with something floral and the distinct scent of teenage desperation. I spotted Emma immediately—her auburn hair like a fox's tail, bright and impossible to miss even in a crowded living room. She was talking to Jason, the guy who'd been ghosting her for three weeks.

"Where have you BEEN?" she hissed when I made my way over, genuinely annoyed but with that tiny smile that said she was mostly just glad I'd showed.

"My phone died. Again. I'm basically living in 2005 at this point."

Jason laughed too loud, like everything he did was performed for an audience he couldn't see. "That's rough, buddy."

Buddy. The word hit me like physical force. This guy had been stringing Emma along since September, and now he was calling me buddy? I felt something ignite in my chest, hot and fast—lightning, maybe, or just the particular rage of watching someone you care about get played by a guy who couldn't even be bothered to remember her name when it mattered.

"Anyway," Jason continued, completely oblivious, "I was just telling Emma about how I'm probably gonna transfer schools next semester. The academics here are just..." He gestured vaguely. "You know?"

"That's bull," I said before I could stop myself.

Emma's eyes went wide. Jason turned to me, confused. "What?"

"You're not transferring. You told me last week you were staying because your mom finally got that promotion and they can't move again." I crossed my arms. "So what's actually going on?"

The room got quieter. People were pretending not to listen but definitely listening. Jason's face flushed. "I don't know what you're—"

"You're bored," I said, finding a confidence I didn't know I had. "You're bored, and you like having someone around who thinks you're interesting, but you're too cowardly to either actually date her or let her move on. So you keep her on the hook with all this maybe-someday nonsense while you literally invent reasons why nothing can happen right now."

Emma was staring at me like I'd grown another head. Jason opened his mouth, closed it, then just walked away.

The silence stretched until someone put music back on. Emma turned to me, something like awe in her expression. "That was..."

"Too much?" I winced. "I know, I shouldn't have—"

"Perfect," she finished. "You're like, the only person who sees through his crap. Everyone else just thinks he's misunderstood."

We ended up sitting on the back porch, watching actual lightning streak across the sky as a storm rolled in. Emma didn't mention Jason again, and neither did I. For the first time all night, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.