Breath Hold

The pool water looked like liquid sapphire in the afternoon light, but Maya's stomach was doing that thing it always did when Jason was within a fifty-foot radius. The thing that felt like her insides were staging a violent protest against her dignity.

"You gonna stand there all day or actually swim?" Chloe called, already doing that effortless thing where she made treading water look like a magazine cover shoot. "Jackson's about to do his epic cannonball."

Jackson. Not Jason. Close enough to make Maya's heart do this stupid flutter thing.

She slid into the pool, letting the water close over her head like a different dimension where she didn't have to overthink everything. Down here, sound was muffled. Expectations dissolved. She could just exist without performing.

When she surfaced, Jason was sitting on the pool edge, his feet dangling in the water, and next to him—this had to be a joke—was the weirdest creature Maya had ever seen. Some kind of hairless cat with wrinkled skin and enormous ears, looking like it was constantly judging everyone's life choices.

"That's Gizmo," Jason said, catching Maya staring. "My sister's sphinx cat. She brought him. He's basically an ancient Egyptian god who thinks he's better than all of us."

"He looks like he knows something we don't."

"Oh, he knows plenty. Watch your secrets around him. He's tiny but he's got that energy like he could totally destroy your life if he wanted to."

Maya laughed, and it came out weird because she was nervous, and now she was thinking about how the last thing she needed was this cat exposing her crush to the entire party. Then Jackson—actual Jackson, not Jason—launched himself off the diving board with a roar of "CANNONBALL!" creating a wave that sent half the party's drinks into the water.

"Classic Jackson," Jason said, rolling his eyes. "He's got zero chill. Like a bull in a china shop, but somehow everyone thinks it's charming."

Maya swam closer to where Jason sat, her heart pounding so hard she was sure the water was vibrating. She could do this. She could talk to him like a normal human being and not someone who had been silently analyzing his Instagram stories for three months.

"Hey," she said. "I'm Maya."

"Jason," he said, and his hand was warm when he reached down to help her climb out to sit next to him. "You go to North Valley too, right? I've seen you in the hallway near the art room."

"Yeah, that's me. The girl always covered in paint."

"I like that," he said. "It's authentic."

Gizmo the sphinx cat chose that moment to curl up next to Maya, purring like a tiny motor. Jason smiled at her, really smiled, and Maya thought maybe the water hadn't been the only safe haven today. Maybe she could find her courage in the shallow end, one breath at a time.