The Riddle at Jordan's Party

The ethernet cable lay coiled like a dead snake on Jordan's basement floor, and I was already regretting coming. Friday night, sophomore year, and somehow I'd let Maya convince me that Jordan's 'small gathering' wouldn't be unbearable.

"Leo!" Jordan called out, pushing through the crowd with his signature grin. "Thanks for helping with the setup. The Wi-Fi's garbage down here."

I nodded, already feeling that familiar goldfish sensation — mouth opening, closing, nothing coming out. Just swimming in circles while everyone else seemed to know exactly what they were doing. Maya was already by the snacks, laughing at something Brad had said, her hair falling across her face in that way that made my chest do that stupid tight thing.

"You good, man?" Jordan asked, because apparently I'd been staring at the router for thirty seconds too long.

"Yeah. Just... trying to remember which cable goes where."

"Dude, it's color-coded."

Right. Color-coded.

The night got worse before it got better. Emma showed up — Emma with the perfect skin and the volleyball scholarship and the ability to talk to anyone like she'd known them forever. She and Jordan had that thing where everyone in the room knew they were into each other except them. I watched from the corner near the entertainment center, nursing my third Solo cup of punch that tasted like disappointment.

Then Jordan's older sister's cat, Sphinx — yes, seriously, Sphinx — decided to make an appearance. The cat had been named before the family realized how pretentious it sounded, or maybe Jordan's parents were just like that. Sphinx jumped onto the entertainment center, knocking over the carefully arranged cables I'd just spent twenty minutes fixing.

"Sphinx!" Jordan yelled.

"Get down from there!" someone else added.

The cat bolted, taking the ethernet cable with her like a trophy. The room went dead silent. Then someone started laughing. Then everyone was laughing, and for the first time all night, I wasn't the goldfish. I was just part of the chaos.

"I'll get it," I said, surprising myself.

I tracked Sphinx to the laundry room, where she was batting at the cable like it was the enemy. I scooped her up — surprisingly friendly for a cat with such an attitude problem — and rescued the cable from her grasp.

When I returned, Jordan was still laughing with Emma, and Maya was looking at me like maybe I wasn't completely invisible.

"Nice work, Leo," she said, and something about the way she said it — not teasing, not pity — made me think maybe high school wasn't going to be four years of feeling like I was swimming in circles after all.

The cable was a little frayed where Sphinx had gotten to it. But it still worked. Some things, apparently, were more resilient than they looked.