The Riddle of Likes

Maya's phone buzzed for the fiftieth time that morning. Her iphone lay face-up on her desk like a desperate friend begging for attention, screen lighting up with another notification from the group chat. She'd been officially ghosted since Friday's party—not the cute, mysterious kind where everyone wonders what you're up to, but the "did we invite her? oh well" kind.

Outside her door, Barnaby—that's her cat, not that anyone cares about his name—let out one of his world-weary meows. He scratched at the wood with the persistence of a creature who knows exactly where he ranks in the household hierarchy (somewhere above Maya, honestly).

"Not now, Barnaby," she muttered, but opened the door anyway. He wove between her legs, purring like a tiny motor, completely unbothered by social exile.

Maya's history textbook sat open to page forty-seven: Ancient Egypt, The Great Pyramid of Giza. She'd been staring at the same paragraph for twenty minutes, but her brain kept looping through Saturday night—how she'd stood by the snack table for thirty minutes, nursing a lukewarm soda while the popular kids formed their perfect little social pyramid around the living room.

Mr. Henderson had written "You're like a sphinx, Maya—quiet, observant" on her last essay. She'd taken it as a compliment until Chloe'd whispered, "that's a nice way of saying nobody knows what you're thinking."

Now she turned the phrase over in her head. The sphinx had asked riddles, right? And if you couldn't solve them, you didn't get to pass. Maybe that's what high school was—one long riddle with no answer key.

Barnaby jumped onto her desk and knocked over a stack of index cards. Maya's phone clattered to the floor, face-down now.

She hesitated.

Then she left it there.

"Fine," she said to the empty room. "Whatever."

She picked up her history notes instead. Somewhere in this textbook, there had to be something more interesting than trying to decode why people liked some posts and not others, why some jokes landed and others crashed.

Barnaby curled up on her textbook, tail twitching.

Maya smiled. At least someone wanted to be near her.

"You know what?" she whispered to him. "Let them wonder."

The sphinx might have been mysterious, but nobody could say she was desperate.