Thunder in My Chest

The flashing lights of Jessica's house party were already giving me a headache, and I'd been here exactly seven minutes. I clutched my phone like a lifeline, standing awkwardly by the snack table while everyone else seemed to possess some innate social vitamin I'd been born deficient in.

"Yo, Marcus!" Tyler appeared beside me, already two solo cups deep. "Why you lurking like a creep? Go talk to people."

Easy for him to say. Tyler could spark conversation with a literal bear and probably walk away with its Instagram.

Outside, a storm was brewing. The first crack of lightning made half the party scream and pull out their phones to document the moment. That's when I saw her—Maya, standing alone by the sliding glass door, watching the rain instead of participating in the Performative Social Media Event.

I'd had a crush on Maya since freshman year, when she'd beaten me in the school spelling bee by correctly spelling "electroencephalograph" like it was nothing. She was brilliant, beautiful, and terrifyingly out of my league.

Another lightning strike illuminated her face, and I realized she looked sad.

My feet moved before my brain could intervene. Suddenly I was standing beside her, my heart doing that thing where it forgets how to rhythm.

"Cool storm," I said, and immediately wanted to bear crawl into a hole and die. Cool storm? Really?

Maya turned, and I swear time actually stopped working correctly. "Yeah. My mom's probably freaking out right now. She's terrified of storms."

"Oh." This was it. The conversation would die, and I would retreat to my snack table sanctuary.

"She's got me taking these vitamin D supplements because she read somewhere they help with anxiety." Maya laughed, and it was this genuine sound that made something in my chest rearrange itself. "Which is ridiculous, because I'm not anxious, I just—" She paused. "I just don't like pretending to be having fun when I'm not."

"Same," I heard myself say. "I'd literally rather be doing homework."

Her eyes widened. "Wait, really?"

"Yeah. I brought AP Chem notes in my pocket just in case."

Maya laughed again, and the next hour was a blur of real conversation—the kind that doesn't feel like performing, the kind where you forget to check your phone because you're actually interested. We talked about everything from our mutual hatred of cafeteria pizza to her dream of becoming an astrophysicist.

"Marcus!" Tyler yelled from across the room. "Party's getting moved to the basement! You coming?"

I looked at Maya, and she shrugged. "Basements during thunderstorms? Sounds like the opening of a horror movie."

"We could go get food instead?" I suggested, my voice only shaking a little. "There's that diner down the street."

Maya smiled, and I swear it was brighter than any lightning flashing outside. "I'd love that."

As we walked out into the rain, I realized maybe I wasn't missing any social vitamin after all. Some people just needed the right kind of light to shine.