The Sphinx in the Snapback

My palms were sweating so hard I could practically water plants with them. Which was unfortunate, because Maya was standing five feet away looking like she'd just stepped out of a TikTok fashion dump, and here I was in my brother's oversized snapback that I thought made me look mysterious and brooding but probably just made me look like I was having an identity crisis.

"Hey, Leo." Her voice hit different in person. "Nice hat. You going for the 'too cool to make eye contact' vibe, or is there actually a face under there?"

I tugged the brim lower. "Maybe."

"You know what you are?" She stepped closer, and my heart rate spiked to illegal levels. "You're like a living sphinx. All riddles and zero answers."

"A sphinx?" I actually looked up then. "That's got to be the weirdest thing anyone's ever called me."

"Weirdest thing you'd admit to, maybe." She grinned. "But seriously, you've been wearing that hat since seventh grade. What are you hiding under there? A forbidden second head? A portal to another dimension? Or just regular old Leo who's terrified someone might see him actually having feelings?"

I opened my mouth, closed it. She wasn't wrong. The hat had been my armor, my security blanket, my 'don't look too closely at me because I'm still figuring out who I even am' shield. But Maya wasn't looking away. She was waiting, palm outstretched like she wanted to check my temperature or maybe just hold my hand.

"What if I took it off?" The words slipped out before I could overthink them.

"Then I'd finally see what I've been looking at all year." Her smile softened. "The real sphinx, without the riddles."

So I did. I took off the hat. And somehow, with sweaty palms and racing heart and absolutely zero cool left to give, I let myself be seen. By someone who somehow already knew me anyway.