Thunderstroke & Catfish Karma

Maya's thumbs hovered over her iPhone screen, heart doing that weird fluttery thing it always did when Luke's name popped up in her DMs. 'U up?' the message read, and she'd been staring at it for approximately seven years—or maybe just three minutes, but who was counting?

Outside her bedroom window, lightning flickered across the sky like nature's strobe light, illuminating the chaos that was about to go down. Her cat, Mr. Whiskers (she'd named him when she was seven and apparently had no taste), chose that exact moment to demonstrate his parkour skills across her desk.

*CRASH.*

Her iPhone went flying. Directly into her half-empty grape Gatorade. Because of course.

Maya scrambled to save it, but the damage was done. Her lifeline to Luke's potential 'I was gonna ask you to homecoming' follow-up was now swimming in purple electrolyte-enhanced doom. She grabbed it, desperately pressing buttons like some kind of panicked tech-support gorilla.

'SHAKOBSKDBDJD' appeared on her screen, followed by three heart eyes emojis and a pizza slice.

Sent. To Luke.

Maya died a little inside. Actually, she died a lot inside.

Another flash of lit up her room, and this time it actually struck somewhere close. The thunder shook the floorboards. Mr. Whiskers puffed up like a cotton ball and bolted under her bed.

Her iPhone buzzed. With shaking hands, Maya checked Luke's response.

'lol same. grape gatorade is my fav. wanna get some tomorrow?'

Maya sat back on her heels, heart racing—from the near-death-by-lightning experience or from the fact that Luke thought her cat-typing catastrophe was actually cute. Either way, things were definitely looking up.

Mr. Whiskers emerged from under the bed, tail twitching smugly. Maya picked him up. 'You know what, cat? You're a menace. But you might be my lucky charm.'