The Sphinx by the Pool

Maya gripped her iPhone until her knuckles turned white, refreshing the group chat that hadn't had a new message in seventeen minutes. The #PoolParty2k26 chat was blowing up with everyone posting selfies and TikToks, while she sat in the bathroom with the fan running, hiding.

Outside, she could hear laughter and splashing. SWIMMING. The one thing she'd managed to avoid all summer by claiming "ear issues" that definitely didn't exist. The truth? She was the only one in the friend group who hadn't bought a swimsuit yet. Every time she tried one on, she just… couldn't.

A knock on the door. "Maya? You good in there?"

Her orange soda she'd snuck in was warm now. "Yeah! Just fixing my hair!"

"Cool. Well, Quinn's here, and he's asking about you."

Quinn. The guy she'd been lowkey crushing on since math class started in September. The guy who'd definitely expect her to be in the pool.

She adjusted her bucket hat in the mirror—her armor, her security blanket, her I'm-totally-fine signal to the world. Deep breath. She could do this. She could go outside and stand by the pool and maybe dip her feet in and—

The bathroom door swung open. Someone else's mistake, not hers.

And there he was. Quinn. Shirtless. Abs. Why did teenage boys always look so confident?

"Oh, shit, sorry—" he started, then stopped. "Hey."

"Hey," she squeaked. The orange soda can was still in her hand. She was literally hiding behind a soda can.

"You coming out?" He leaned against the doorframe, casual, like this was normal. "Riley's been asking about you."

Riley. The girl who sat in the back of English class, who never spoke, who everyone called The Sphinx because she was basically impossible to read. The girl Quinn was supposedly into.

"Yeah," Maya said. "Yeah, I'm—"

"You don't have to swim," Quinn said suddenly. "If you don't want to."

Maya stared at him. "What?"

"Riley's not swimming either. She's just chilling in the corner with her phone. She's, like, fully clothed." Quinn shrugged. "Nobody actually cares, Maya. We're just here to hang out."

The bucket hat suddenly felt ridiculous. The orange soda can was warm. The iPhone in her pocket had twelve unread messages from people wondering where she was.

She stepped out of the bathroom.

Riley The Sphinx was sitting on a patio chair, fully dressed, scrolling through her phone. She looked up as Maya approached.

"Hey," Riley said. "You want the rest of this?" She held up a bag of chips.

Maya sat down. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Probably the group chat again. Probably people wondering where she was. Probably Quinn, maybe.

But for the first time all night, she didn't check it.

The pool glowed behind them, full of people she loved. And ahead of her? A sphinx who wasn't so mysterious after all. Just another person who didn't want to get wet.

Some riddles solve themselves when you stop trying so hard to figure them out.