The Sphinx Party

Maya stood frozen in the doorway of Tyler's basement, the thumping bass vibrating through her Converses. This was it. Her first high school party. And she was already regretting everything.

"You good?" Jordan nudged her, their eyes scanning the crowded room.

"Yeah. Just... taking it all in." Maya adjusted her glasses, suddenly hyper-aware of how uncool she looked.

The kitchen called to her ten minutes later when the social anxiety hit DEFCON 1. That's where she found it: a hairless, wrinkly creature perched on the counter like it owned the place.

"Is that... a cat?"

"She's a Sphinx," a guy appeared beside her, holding a red cup. "Name's Cleo. My mom's obsessed with Egyptian mythology. Hence, Tyler's whole pharaoh phase." He gestured at the fake hieroglyphics taped to the walls.

Maya blinked. "Your mom has a sphinx cat named Cleo."

"The levels of irony here? Immeasurable." He grinned, and okay, he was cute in that skater-boy way with messy hair and a vintage band tee. "I'm Leo. Ironically."

"Maya. Un-ironically."

He laughed, and the sound made something in her chest do that annoying flutter thing.

CRACK.

Lightning illuminated the entire kitchen through the window above the sink, casting everything in stark blue-white light for half a second. The storm had been building all evening.

"Wild night," Leo said, motioning to a punch bowl filled with floating fruit. "Want some? It's got papaya and mango. My mom's trying to be 'exotic' with her hosting skills."

Maya peered at the pale orange cubes. "I've never had papaya."

"First time for everything." He handed her a cup. "Like your first party."

How did he know? Unless it was written all over her face—the deer-in-headlights expression, the way she kept clutching her phone like a lifeline.

"Is it that obvious?"

Leo's expression softened. "Nah. Just remember my first party. Stood in the kitchen for twenty minutes pretending to text people."

"Bold of you to assume I'm not actually texting."

"Bold of you to assume I care." He winked, and Maya's brain short-circuited.

The punch was actually good—sweet and tropical and nothing like the gross stuff her friends had warned her about. They talked for what felt like five minutes but was probably forty-five. About school, about music, about how neither of them really fit into the neatly labeled boxes of high school hierarchy.

Another flash of lightning, closer this time. Cleo the Sphinx cat let out a weird yowl and bolted from the counter.

"She hates storms," Leo said. "We should probably—"

The power went out. Total darkness, screams from the basement, and then—

Cell phone flashlights flickered on like fireflies. Leo's face illuminated in the soft glow, inches from hers. They'd moved closer without her realizing.

"So," he said quietly, over the murmurs and complaints. "You want to bail? There's a diner down the road. They have the best milkshakes."

Maya looked at the dark room full of people she didn't know, then back at Leo with his stupidly cute grin and the Sphinx cat winding around his legs.

"Yes," she said. "A thousand times yes."

Her first party. And she was leaving early. But as they snuck out the back door into the warm summer night, Maya thought this might be the best worst decision she'd ever made.