The Sphinx's Final Riddle

The text from Maya lit up my iPhone like a tiny supernova: "金字塔 party @ Emma's. U coming?"

I stared at the screen, thumbs hovering. Pyramid. Because Emma's Egyptian-themed birthday party was basically a social hierarchy in action. The popular kids at the top, everyone else scattered below like debris.

"You good?" My mom leaned against my doorframe, holding a laundry basket. "You've been zombie-walking all week."

"I'm fine," I muttered, though honestly? I felt like one of those extra walkers in a zombie apocalypse background scene — just shuffling through high school, surviving on caffeine and anxiety.

She left an orange on my desk. "For luck. Vitamin C. You look peaky."

The orange sat there like a tiny sun. I grabbed it, shoved it in my hoodie pocket, and grabbed my board.

Emma's house was already thumping with bass when I arrived. Someone had constructed a literal pyramid out of red solo cups in the dining room. A cardboard sphinx head guarded the snack table, its painted eyes judging everyone's dance moves.

Then I saw her. Maya. Standing near the sphinx, wearing this orange dress that made her look like she was glowing from inside.

My stomach did something unholy. Not zombie-level undead, but definitely not alive either. Some middle ground of panic.

"Hey!" She waved me over like it was nothing. Like I hadn't spent three weeks overanalyzing every interaction we'd had since September.

"Nice sphinx," I said, and immediately wanted to die.

She laughed. "Right? Nick made it in study hall. He's convinced it's prophetic."

"Prophetic?"

"Yeah, apparently if you make eye contact with it, it reveals your deepest insecurity."

I stared at the cardboard sphinx. "That's terrifying."

"Or," Maya said, stepping closer, "it's just cardboard. But sometimes you need a scary monster to realize what's actually scary."

"What's actually scary?"

She looked right at me. "Missing out on stuff because you're busy pretending you don't care."

My phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from my mom: "Have fun! Don't be a zombie :)"

Maya's phone buzzed too. She glanced at it, then back at me. "Wanna get out of here? There's this 24-hour diner down the street..."

The sphinx seemed to wink.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I do."

And just like that, I wasn't a zombie anymore. I was just some kid with an orange in his pocket, walking toward a diner with a girl in an orange dress, while a cardboard sphinx watched us leave the pyramid behind.