The Sphinx at Ryan's Party

Maya leaned against the kitchen counter, feeling like a total zombie. Three hours of standing in a corner, nodding at people she barely knew, clutching this ridiculous fedora her mom insisted would make her look "sophisticated." Spoiler: it didn't. It made her look like she was cosplay-locating as a detective from a black-and-white movie.

Her palms were legit sweating through her phone case. Classic anxiety move, checking Instagram every thirty seconds like something had actually changed since the last time she looked.

Then she saw him. Levi. The sphinx of East High—that's what her friends called him because he never spoke, just sat there looking mysterious and hot and completely unapproachable. He was perched on the basement couch, sketching in a notebook while everyone else played beer pong.

Maya's brain was like, absolutely not. But her feet were already moving.

"Nice hat," he said, not looking up from his sketch.

"It's terrible, right?" she blurted. "My mom's idea."

He actually laughed. "Parents are cursed with bad fashion sense. It's like, a genetic thing."

Maya sat down beside him. For the first time all night, she didn't feel zombie-like. Her palms weren't sweating anymore. The sphinx wasn't so mysterious after all—just a guy who liked to draw and hated parties too.

"You want to get out of here?" Levi asked, closing his notebook. "There's this sphinx statue at the park. It's way more interesting than this."

Maya grabbed her terrible hat and grinned. "Absolutely."

Sometimes the scariest decisions end up being the best ones.