Breathless

I was running — literally and metaphorically. Cross country practice at 6 AM because somehow Coach thought dawn patrols built character. My lungs burned, legs pumping rhythmically on the trail, but honestly? Anything was better than sitting at home overthinking every text Tyler hadn't sent me.

"You're slowing down, Maya!" Coach yelled from his golf cart. I wanted to flip him off but settled for a dramatic eye roll that he definitely couldn't see.

The real reason I'd joined the team wasn't the fitness. It was the escape — running until my brain turned off, until the existential dread about high school and college and what am I doing with my life faded into background noise. Plus, Jordan was on the team. Jordan with the messy curls and the weirdly specific knowledge about 80s horror movies who sometimes ran beside me and made jokes about how we were training for the zombie apocalypse.

Friday afternoon changed everything. Chloe, the queen bee of our grade, slid into the seat next to me at lunch.

"Pool party at my place. Saturday. Bring Jordan." She winked like she knew something I didn't.

My stomach did gymnastics. A pool party meant swimming. Meaning: swimsuits. Meaning: showing skin I'd spent fifteen years learning to hate in front of people who definitely wouldn't understand.

But Jordan was going.

"I'll be there," I said, somehow keeping my voice steady.

Saturday arrived in a swirl of anxiety and impulse decisions. Standing in front of Chloe's massive house, I felt like a spy observing an alien planet. Music thumped inside. Girls in bikinis I couldn't pull off. Boys doing cannonballs. The social hierarchy mapped out in pool floaties and seating arrangements.

Jordan found me by the snack table, pretending to be very interested in a bag of Doritos.

"I feel like I'm undercover," I whispered. "Like I'm spying on normal teenagers and trying to pass as one."

Jordan laughed, that genuine sound that made my chest feel weird. "Same. I've been hiding behind this chip bag for twenty minutes."

"Wanna go swimming?" The words tumbled out before I could overthink them.

Jordan's eyes widened, then softened. "Only if you go first."

I cannonballed into the deep end, water swallowing me whole. For a moment, everything was muffled and blue and perfect. When I surfaced, Jordan was jumping in beside me, sending a wave over my face.

"Spy mission successful?" Jordan asked, shaking wet hair everywhere.

"Mission accomplished," I said, and for the first time in forever, I wasn't running from anything.