The Sphinx in the Basement

Maya's older brother Ethan called it "the party of the year," which meant it would be exactly three weeks before anyone stopped talking about it. Maya, naturally, was supposed to be invisible—or better yet, nonexistent.

"Just stay in your room with the door closed," Ethan said, already checking his hair in the hallway mirror for the third time. "And don't come out unless the house is on fire."

Maya waited exactly seventeen minutes after the first people arrived before creeping downstairs. Not to crash the party—she wasn't suicidal—but because she'd heard a weird noise from the basement, and their parents' sphinx cat, Cleo, had slipped past her earlier. Cleo hated parties. The wrinkly, hairless cat would probably be hiding somewhere miserable, judging everyone silently.

The basement was darker than usual. Someone had unplugged the router, probably because the glowing cable looked un-aesthetic or whatever. A girl sat cross-legged on the concrete floor, face illuminated by her phone screen.

"Hey," the girl said, looking up. She had rainbow earrings and actual glitter on her eyelids. "You're Ethan's sister, right?"

"Maya." She gestured at the router. "Ethernet cable's loose. That's why the WiFi's dead."

"Oh." The girl's eyes widened. "I was trying to, like, vibe check before going upstairs, but I couldn't load anything."

"Vibe check?" Maya repeated.

"You know. Psych yourself up." The girl tucked hair behind her ear. "These people are intimidating. Everyone's so, like... curated."

Something in Maya's chest unlocked. She knelt and plugged in the cable. The router's lights flickered to life.

"Ethan's been prepping for this all week," Maya admitted. "He made me promise not to exist."

The girl laughed—this genuine, startled sound that made Maya want to make her laugh again. "I'm Sam, by the way. I only came because my friend said there'd be snacks."

Cleo emerged from behind some boxes, her wrinkly skin looking especially alien in the dim light. Sam didn't flinch. Instead, she pulled a treat from her pocket—why did she have cat treats?

"Hey, little sphinx," Sam said softly as Cleo rubbed against her hand. "Hiding out too?"

"She hates crowds," Maya said, surprised at how her voice sounded. Normal. Like she talked to pretty girls all the time.

"Me too." Sam scratched Cleo's chin. "Hey, you want to just... stay down here? I found this really weird documentary about ancient aliens on Netflix."

Maya thought about Ethan's party upstairs, the perfectly curated vibes, the nonexistent she was supposed to be.

"Ancient aliens sound better than whatever's happening up there," Maya said.

They spent the rest of the night in the basement, Cleo purring between them, while Sam made fun of the documentary's increasingly absurd theories. Somewhere around midnight, Sam's shoulder brushed against Maya's, and neither moved away.

The next morning, Ethan was furious about some girl who'd never actually come to his party. "Sam said she'd be here," he complained. "I waited like an hour."

Maya just smiled, her phone buzzing with a text from an unknown number: hey it's sam from last night 👾 ancient aliens sequel this weekend??

"Yeah," Maya said. "That's rough, bro."