Blue Screen Summer

Maya gripped her iphone so hard her knuckles turned white. The pool party of the year was in full swing, and she was standing alone by the snack table, watching everyone else living their best lives. The air smelled like chlorine and coconut sunscreen.

"Yo, Maya! You gonna stand there all day looking like a lost cat?" called Jake, the senior she'd been lowkey crushing on since freshman year. He was doing cannonballs off the diving board with his crew, splash zone fully engaged.

She forced a laugh. "Ha ha, hilarious."

Her phone buzzed. A text from her best friend: "JUST GET IN THE POOL ALREADY. You're literally overthinking this."

Maya was overthinking it. She was wearing this bright orange bikini that her mom had picked out, and she felt like a traffic cone amidst all the sage green and pastel pink swimsuits. Why did she always stand out?

Then she saw them — the most random thing ever. Three plastic bags of goldfish from the pet store sitting on a patio table. Jake's crew had apparently decided to "liberate" them into the pool as some kind of weird prank.

"Don't do it!" Maya heard herself saying before she could process it. Everyone turned to look.

Jake treaded water, grinning. "What? They need to be free, Maya. It's metaphorical."

"It's literal, Jake. That's chlorinated water. You're gonna kill them." She marched over to the table, grabbed the bags, and before she could second-guess herself, she dumped all thirty goldfish into Jake's giant insulated water bottle that was sitting nearby.

"There. They're free now."

The silence lasted three seconds. Then everyone started cracking up.

Jake pulled himself out of the pool, dripping wet, and raised his water bottle like a trophy. "Legend behavior, Maya. Actual legend behavior."

For the first time all day, Maya didn't feel like the awkward girl in the orange bikini. She was just Maya, the girl who saved thirty goldfish from a bunch of idiot boys. And that felt pretty good.

Her iphone buzzed again. Her best friend: "OMG TELL ME EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW."

Maya finally put her phone down. Some things were worth experiencing in real time.