The Party Sphinx

My palms were sweating. Again. I wiped them on my jeans, but the moisture just kept coming. Standing outside Jake's house, I could feel the bass thumping through the door like a second heartbeat.

"You good?" Marcus asked, already halfway up the driveway. He looked effortless in his worn sneakers and messed-up hair that somehow looked perfect.

"Yeah. Just need a sec." I adjusted my hat for the third time. My armor.

Inside, the air was thick with cheap body spray and something sweet. People I barely recognized from school were scattered across the living room, laughing too loud, standing too close. I grabbed a soda and slipped toward the backyard.

That's where I found her.

She was perched on the porch railing like something ancient and knowing. Chloe, from my AP Bio class. The one who never spoke but somehow knew everything.

"You're hiding," she said, not looking at me.

"I'm strategizing."

She turned, and her eyes caught the porch light. "That's what the sphinx said before she asked the riddle."

My palms started sweating again. "The what?"

"The sphinx. Guarded the city of Thebes. Asked riddles, ate you if you got them wrong." She stepped closer. "What's your riddle?"

"My what?"

"The thing that keeps you stuck. The question you can't answer."

I looked at my sneakers. "How to not be weird everywhere I go."

Chloe laughed, and it sounded real. "That's not a riddle. That's just being sixteen."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bright orange gummy. "Vitamin D. My mom says I don't get enough sun because I'm always reading. Want one?"

"Sure." I took it, and our fingers brushed. My heart did something complicated.

"So," she said, leaning back against the railing. "What's actually wrong?"

"I don't know how to talk to people. Especially people I think are cool."

Chloe smiled, and it transformed her face from mysterious to something softer. "You're doing okay right now."

"Yeah, but I'm hyper-focused on not saying something stupid. It's exhausting."

"Try saying something stupid on purpose. Takes the pressure off."

"Your hair looks like a bird's nest."

She touched her hair, surprised, then laughed too. "See? You survived."

"Maybe this party won't be so bad."

"Or," Chloe said, "we could bail. There's a sphinx documentary on PBS tonight."

"Seriously?"

"Cat documentaries. Close enough."

I looked toward the house where Marcus was probably wondering where I'd disappeared to. Then I looked at Chloe, with her messy hair and vitamin gummies and weird conversation topics.

"Let me text Marcus."

"My car's around back," she said. "We can get snacks."

I took off my hat and ran a hand through my own messy hair. "Yeah. Let's go."

And just like that, the riddle was solved. Not by being cool, but by finding someone else who didn't care about cool at all.