Vitamin D Deficiency

Zara's palms were sweating. Again. She wiped them on her denim shorts, leaving dark streaks that would absolutely ruin her aesthetic, but whatever. It's not like anyone was looking at her hands when they could be looking at Kai's Instagram stories instead.

"You're literally spiraling," Maya whispered, bumping Zara's shoulder with her own. "Chill. He's just a guy. A guy who, might I add, you've been stalking—sorry, *lightly spying* on—for three weeks."

Zara glared. "It's not stalking if his posts are public. That's literally what the algorithm wants."

They were at Jordan's pool party, the kind where everyone tried way too hard to look effortless. Zara had spent forty-five minutes curling her hair and another twenty convincing herself that wearing a two-piece wasn't social suicide. Now Kai was actually here, standing by the snack table with his perfect hair and his perfect smile and his stupidly perfect vitamin water.

"I heard he started taking those vitamins for focus," Maya said, like she was sharing state secrets. "My brother's on the same brand. Apparently they're supposed to help with SAT prep or something."

Zara rolled her eyes. "Right, because that's what I need. More pills to fix everything that's wrong with me."

"Oh my god, dramatic much?"

"I'm serious! First it was clear skin, then it was growing taller, then it was—"

And then lightning struck.

Not metaphorically. Like, actual weather lightning cracked across the sky, close enough that the pool surface shimmered with electric tension. Everyone screamed, which was embarrassing because they were all totally safe, but still—chaos.

In the chaos, Zara got separated from Maya. She ended up under the palm tree in the corner (why Jordan's parents had a palm tree in Ohio, she'd never understand), checking her phone because that's what you do when you feel awkward.

"You're blocking the WiFi signal."

Zara jumped. It was Kai. Standing there. Looking at her like she wasn't a complete weirdo hiding under a fake tropical tree during a thunderstorm.

"Sorry," she managed, clutching her phone so hard her palms left sweaty fingerprints on the case. "I was just..."

"Spying on me again?"

Zara's face burned. "What? No! I wasn't—"

Kai laughed. Not mean laughter. Actual laughter. "I'm kidding. But I did see you liked my story from last week. The one about the vitamin D supplements?"

"You noticed that?"

"Zara, I have three followers. Of course I noticed."

The rain started falling, gentle at first, then harder. Neither of them moved.

"I only take them because I'm always tired," Kai said, shrugging. "Not because they're magical or anything. But my mom thinks they'll help with my focus issues."

"Focus issues?"

"Yeah. Like, I can't concentrate on anything for more than ten minutes. Including parties, apparently." He gestured to the storm, to everyone running toward Jordan's house. "This is way more interesting than pretending to care about Jordan's new sound system."

Zara felt something shift. Not in the storm sense. In the everything sense.

"I have those too," she said quietly. "Focus issues. I mean. Not—anything else."

Kai smiled, and it was different from his Instagram pictures. Better. "Cool. We can be unfocused together."

She held out her hand, palm up this time, no longer hiding. "I'm Zara, by the way. The person who has been lightly spying on you."

He took it. "Kai. The person who liked that you liked his story."

Lightning flashed again, closer this time. They didn't even look up.