The Papaya Pact

Maya's older sister had left for college three days ago, and the house felt weirdly quiet. Too quiet. Which was probably why Maya found herself at her first high school party, clutching a red solo cup like it was a lifeline, surrounded by juniors who seemed to know exactly how to exist in their own skin.

"You gonna drink that water or marry it?"

Maya jumped. A guy with messy curls and a sweatshirt that said 'NASA' stood way too close. His name was something with a J. Jake? Jared?

"It's water," she said, like that explained everything.

"Cool. Cool." He nodded like this was a perfectly normal conversation. "I'm Jared, by the way. And that's Leo's cat, Thumbelina. She's an escape artist."

A fat orange tabby was currently weaving through people's legs, jumping onto the coffee table, and knocking over a bowl of chips with zero regrets. Someone screamed. The cat bolted.

"I got her!" Maya said automatically, because she was the person who caught things. The responsible one. The one who stayed home with the cat when her sister went to parties.

She chased Thumbelita through the crowd, past the kitchen where someone was definitely cutting up a papaya — who brought papayas to a house party? — and out the back door. The cat was gone. Just... gone.

"You okay?"

Jared stood behind her, holding something green.

"I lost the cat."

"Yeah, she'll turn up. She always does." He held out what turned out to be a spinach wrap. "You want this? I'm vegetarian by accident tonight."

Maya laughed before she could stop herself. "What does that even mean?"

"It means there's pepperoni pizza inside and my mom's testing my cholesterol tomorrow." He shrugged. "So. Water and spinach wraps. We're living wild."

They sat on the porch steps while the party thumped behind them. Jared didn't ask why she was outside alone, or why she kept checking her phone like her sister might text. Instead, he talked about how Thumbelina had once gotten her head stuck in a jar, and how he'd accidentally cut the TV cable last month trying to install a gaming system, and how his grandma swore papayas could fix anything from broken hearts to bad grades.

"My sister left," Maya said suddenly. "For college. I'm supposed to be sad, but I think I'm mostly just... scared. That I'll never be anyone without her."

Jared nodded. "Yeah. My brother graduated last year. I thought the house would feel empty too. But you know what?"

"What?"

"It doesn't. It just feels like yours now. That's scarier, but also... kind of better?"

Inside, someone yelled that the cat was in the bathtub. They stood up together, and Maya realized her hands weren't shaking anymore.

"Hey," Jared said. "Next time, maybe actually drink the water. Or something stronger. Your call."

"Maybe," Maya said, and for the first time, she meant it.