The Sphinx at Tyler's Party

My fedora was basically a security blanket. Stupid, right? But it was the one thing keeping me from feeling totally exposed at Tyler's party. I'd spent forty-five minutes perfecting that carefully messy hair underneath, only to hide it.

"Yo, Marcus!" Tyler appeared, red cup in hand. "Glad you made it."

"Yeah, thanks for the invite." I adjusted my hat brim, then immediately felt like a loser for fidgeting. Why was this so hard for everyone else?

I drifted toward the back corner, away from the thumping bass and the knot of popular kids. That's when I saw her — Chloe, the girl from my AP English class, sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring at a fishbowl like it contained the secrets of the universe.

"Is that... a goldfish?" I asked, because my brain had apparently stopped working.

Chloe looked up, and I swear her eyes were actually sparkling. "His name is Bubbles. He's the most interesting person here."

I cracked up. She was wearing this oversized cardigan and no makeup, and somehow she looked more confident than everyone else combined.

"Marcus, right?" She patted the carpet beside her. "Wanna hang out with Bubbles?"

Something shifted. I sat down, hat and all, and for the next hour we talked about everything — our weird families, how high school felt like a weird experiment, why we both hated pumpkin spice everything. I forgot about the party entirely.

"You know," Chloe said, studying Bubbles's tiny fish face, "you remind me of a sphinx."

"A sphinx?"

"Mysterious. Quiet. But kind of wise?" She grinned. "Also, you look like you're contemplating impossible riddles."

I laughed so hard I almost cried. "I think I'm just nervous."

"Here." Chloe reached over and gently removed my hat, smoothing my hair. "You're cooler without it."

I let her. And for the first time all night, I actually felt like myself.

Bubbles swam to the front of his bowl, mouth opening and closing like he had something to say. Maybe he did. Either way, I was pretty sure this was the start of something good.