The Sphinx at Sarah's Party

The bass thumped through the floorboards of Sarah's basement, making my chest vibrate. I stood near the snack table, nursing a lukewarm soda while my friends disappeared into the crowd. Typical.

"Hey." A guy in a vintage hoodie appeared beside me. "I'm Leo. You look like you'd rather be anywhere but here."

I almost laughed. "Is it that obvious?"

"Pretty much." He gestured toward the corner where Sarah's younger sister had set up a folding table. "She's doing palm readings. Five bucks."

"No thanks. I don't believe in that stuff."

"Me neither." Leo leaned closer. "But she told Tommy he'd break his arm before spring finals, and then he literally did. So."

I raised an eyebrow. "Fine."

Sarah's sister, whose name turned out to be Mia, examined my hand with exaggerated seriousness. "Hmm. Interesting."

"What?" I asked, suddenly self-conscious.

"You're at a crossroads," she said, tracing my lifeline with a purple manicured fingernail. "Something big is coming. A choice."

Outside, my golden retriever Buster barked at something in the darkness. My phone buzzed—my mom asking when I'd be home.

"Cryptic," I said, pulling my hand back.

Mia shrugged. "I'm just the messenger."

Later, I found myself on the back porch with Leo, both of us escaping the noise. That's when I saw it.

"Is that... a sphinx?" I pointed to the elaborate garden sculpture looming in the shadows—lion body, human face, wings tucked like it was plotting something.

"My dad's midlife crisis," Leo said. "He's really into Egyptian mythology now. It supposedly guards the house from negative energy."

"Does it work?"

"No. My parents still fight like crazy." He sat on the steps. "But it's cool to look at."

Buster trotted over and nosed Leo's hand. I watched them together—my dog, this strange boy, this weird statue in someone's suburban backyard.

"Your sphinx knows something," I said suddenly.

"What?"

"Riddles. Mysteries. Things you can't just... figure out by studying harder or being more like everyone else."

Leo looked at me for a long moment. "Like the palm reading thing."

"Maybe. Or maybe I'm just tired of pretending to know exactly who I'm supposed to be."

Buster barked at the sphinx like they were having a conversation we couldn't hear. And standing there on that porch, under lights strung up for a party I hadn't even wanted to attend, something shifted. Not in some dramatic, movie-moment way. Just... quietly.

"Hey," Leo said. "You want to get out of here? There's this place that has the best milkshakes."

I checked my phone. My mom had sent three more texts.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I do."

The sphinx watched us go, inscrutable as ever. Whatever riddle I'd been trying to solve could wait.