The Riddle of 2 AM

At 2:47 AM, Maya lay in bed, thumb scrolling through her iPhone like it was the most important thing in the universe. Her eyes burned, but she couldn't stop. She felt like a zombie — that weird, hollowed-out state where you're technically awake but nothing's really registering.

The blue light washed over her face as she watched her classmates live lives that looked way better than hers. Sarah at the beach. Jordan at the party. Everyone everywhere but here.

Her finger hovered over Jada's contact. They'd been best friend since seventh grade, but lately... something had shifted. Jada had found new people. New interests. A whole new vibe that Maya couldn't quite crack.

It felt like trying to solve the sphinx's riddle without knowing what the question was. What am I supposed to do? Who am I supposed to be?

"Ugh, why is this so hard?" Maya groaned into her pillow.

Her phone buzzed. A notification from Jada.

"u up?"

Maya stared at the screen. Was this it? The olive branch? The conversation that would fix everything? Or just casual boredom at 2 AM?

Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard. Typing. Deleting. Typing again.

"yeah," she finally sent.

Three dots appeared. Then disappeared. Then appeared again.

"i miss u," Jada wrote.

Something in Maya's chest loosened. The zombie fog lifted. The sphinx's riddle suddenly seemed simple — sometimes you just have to say the thing.

"me too," Maya typed. "wanna come over tomorrow? we can do literally nothing."

"literally nothing sounds perfect," Jada sent back.

Maya set her phone on her nightstand, finally ready to sleep. Some riddles don't need solving, she realized. They just need someone to help you figure out that you're not alone in asking them.