Thunder in Our Pocket

Maya's palm was sweating against her iPhone case as she stood outside Tyler's house. The bass from the party inside vibrated through the soles of her sneakers. She'd been running scenarios in her head all week—what she'd say, how she'd lean against the doorframe like she'd seen in movies, like she wasn't absolutely terrified.

"You coming in or what?" Chloe's voice snapped her out of it. Her best friend was already three steps ahead, turning back with that look—the one that said Maya was overthinking again. Which she was. Obviously.

"I'm coming," Maya lied. She wasn't. Not really. But she followed Chloe through the door anyway because that's what you did when you were fifteen and trying to figure out who you were supposed to be.

The house was packed—people from school, people she barely knew, people who seemed to move through parties like they'd been born doing it. Maya's phone buzzed in her hand. Her mom, checking in. Are you having fun?

She typed back yeah before shoving it in her back pocket. Truth was, she was mostly standing next to a bowl of chips, watching Tyler laugh at something someone said across the room.

Then the storm hit.

One crack of lightning, closer than anyone expected, and the power went out. The music cut. People screamed—some real, some performing for effect. In the darkness, someone's phone flashlight flickered on. Then another. The room turned into this constellation of small lights, everyone's face illuminated in weird, ghostly white.

Tyler ended up next to her in the chaos. She could feel her palm sweating again and hoped he couldn't tell.

"Wild," he said, and she realized he was talking to her. Actually talking to her. Not past her, not around her. "You Maya? From English?"

She nodded, forgetting he couldn't really see it.

"Yeah. You're Tyler."

"Yeah." He laughed a little. "Small world."

They stood there in the semi-darkness talking about nothing—English class, the storm, how someone had definitely spilled something on the carpet. Maya wasn't running through scenarios anymore. She was just standing there, talking to a boy who noticed she existed, while the rain pounded against the windows and the power stayed stubbornly off.

Her phone buzzed again later. Are you okay? That storm looks bad.

Maya smiled in the darkness. Yeah, she typed back. I'm actually good.

And for the first time all night, she wasn't lying.