Thunder in Our Hands

The power cut out at exactly 11:47 PM — right as Maya was about to send That Text to Jason.

"No, no, NO." Maya groaned, flopping backward onto her beanbag chair. "The universe is literally sabotaging me."

"Dude, maybe the universe is doing you a favor," said Sam, currently sprawled across her floor, aggressively chewing gum. "That text was borderline unhinged anyway."

"You're the worst friend ever."

"Love you too, princess." Sam sat up and crawled toward the router. "Maybe it's just the router? Let me check the cable connection—"

CRACK.

Lightning split the sky outside Maya's window, illuminating everything in a harsh flash of purple-white. The thunder followed like someone dropping a bowling ball on the roof.

Both of them screamed.

"Okay, that was WAY too close," Maya said, her heart hammering. She reached out instinctively, and Sam grabbed her hand, interlacing their fingers like they used to do when they were little kids scared of monsters.

Sam's palm was warm and slightly sweaty — gross but comforting. Real. Not like Jason, who'd been liking her Instagram posts for three weeks without sending a single actual message, leaving Maya overanalyzing every single interaction like she was writing a dissertation on micro-expressions.

"You know," Sam said softly, still holding her hand, "Jason's not worth this stress."

"I know," Maya whispered.

"You're the whole package, May. You're smart, you're weird-funny, you have that smile that makes people — " Sam cleared up dramatically " — anyway. The right person will see it."

Another flash of lightning. In that brief illumination, Maya saw something in Sam's expression she'd never noticed before. Or maybe she'd noticed but never let herself notice.

The storm raged outside, but inside, everything suddenly felt quiet.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"You think you could help me draft a better text? To someone who actually matters?"

Sam squeezed her hand. "Yeah. I think I could do that."

The power stayed out all night. The text to Jason remained unsent. And maybe that was exactly the point.