The Sphinx in Carter's Kitchen

The bass from Carter's living room vibrated through the floorboards, but I'd already retreated to the kitchen. First party of sophomore year, and I lasted exactly twelve minutes before my social battery hit 0%. I was perched on a counter next to a fruit tray that looked suspiciously like it had been imported from 2019.

"You gonna eat that papaya, or just stare at it like it's gonna reveal the secrets of the universe?"

I jumped. Maya leaned against the refrigerator, solo cup in hand, hair an explosion of orange corkspring curls that defied gravity and probably physics. We'd had geometry together last year, and I'd spent most of it trying not to obviously watch her.

"It looks... alien," I admitted.

"Everything's alien when you're overthinking it." She reached over, grabbed a piece of the papaya, and popped it into her mouth. "See? Still alive. You're at your first party, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"You're hiding in the kitchen with the sphinx." She pointed to Carter's hairless cat, which was curled on a bar stool, eyeing us judgmentally. "That's Nefertiti. She knows all our secrets. She's like a vitamin for the soul, except instead of nutrients, she gives you existential dread."

I laughed despite myself. "That's the weirdest description I've ever heard."

"But accurate." She moved closer, and I could smell coconut shampoo and something sweet. "So what's your deal? Why the hiding?"

"Too many people. Too much... performing."

"Yeah, I get that." She picked up an orange slice from the fruit tray. "You know what someone told me once? High school's just this weird riddle, like the sphinx in mythology. You spend four years trying to solve it, but the answer's always changing because the question keeps shifting."

"That's... depressingly accurate."

"Or hopefully accurate." She smiled, and it was this tiny, real thing that made my chest do something embarrassing. "Because it means we're all just pretending to know what we're doing. You're not doing it wrong. You're just doing it."

Nefertiti chose that moment to yawn dramatically, showing teeth.

"See? Even the sphinx thinks I'm right." Maya held out the orange slice. "Want one? It's not papaya, but it's got vitamin C for all that stress you're carrying."

I took it. Our fingers brushed.

"So," she said, "wanna go back out there and fake it together?"

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I'd like that."

And for the first time all night, I actually meant it.