The Riddle of Friday Night

Maya slumped at the cafeteria table, poking at her lunch like a detective investigating a crime scene. The spinach salad mocked her — wilted, sad, exactly how she felt after third period math.

"You look like a zombie," said Leo, sliding into the seat across from her. "Rough night?"

Maya rolled her eyes. "Rough life. My parents are making me go to that dinner party tonight. The Hendersons."

Leo's cat-ate-the-canary grin made her suspicious. "The Hendersons with the cute son?"

"Shut up," Maya hissed, though her face betrayed her. "I'm going to spy on him through the bathroom window like a normal person."

"That's not normal," Leo said. "That's criminal."

But Maya's mind was already spinning. Jordan Henderson. New to school, mysteriously quiet, the kind of cute that made you forget your own name when he looked at you. She'd caught him watching her in history class yesterday, or maybe she'd been watching him — honestly, at this point, who was the spy and who was the target?

At the party, Maya lasted approximately seven minutes before escaping to the backyard. That's when she found it: a massive stone sphinx statue by the pool, incongruous and perfect. Jordan stood there too, hands in his pockets, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Weird statue, right?" she said before she could overthink it.

He turned, and in the porch light his expression was soft, surprised. "My dad's midlife crisis. He went to Egypt and came back with this."

They stood there for a moment, the silence between them charged with something electric.

"What's the riddle?" she blurted out. "Sphinxes have riddles, right?"

Jordan laughed, and it was the best sound she'd heard all week. "Okay. What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"

Maya groaned. "Man. Seriously? That's the classic?"

"Hey, I didn't say it would be original." He stepped closer. "What's your answer?"

"A person," she said. "Baby, adult, old person with a cane."

"Correct." His eyes crinkled. "Your turn."

Maya thought about everything — the awkwardness of being fifteen, the way her heart raced whenever he was near, the strange new language of feelings she was just learning to speak.

"What," she said slowly, "feels like dying but also like you've never been more alive?"

Jordan looked at her for a long moment. The sphinx watched them both, stone-faced and eternal.

"First love," he said quietly.

Maya's breath caught. The backyard, the party, everything else faded. The zombie feeling was gone, replaced by something terrifying and wonderful.

"Yeah," she whispered. "That's exactly right."