Catfish at the Pool

The chlorine stung my eyes, but honestly, anything was better than being inside with them. My sister's graduation party. Like, congrats on the degree, Kayla, but did you need to invite every popular person from high school?

I'd been hiding at the bottom of the pool for as long as I could hold my breath, which was approximately forty-seven seconds. Not great, but improvement over last summer's thirty.

When I finally surfaced, gasping, I realized everyone had migrated to the backyard. Including Tyler. Tyler with the perfect messy hair that somehow always looked good wet. Tyler who I'd been lowkey obsessed with since seventh period English.

Great. Awesome. Fantastic.

I climbed out of the pool, my hair plastered to my skull like a drowned rat's. Just as I was about to make a strategic retreat to my room, something moved in the palm tree by the fence.

A cat. A huge, fluffy orange cat clinging to the trunk like its life depended on it.

"You see that too, right?" A voice behind me.

I turned. Tyler. Still shirtless. Still unfairly attractive.

"The cat?"

"Yeah, little dude's been stuck up there for like twenty minutes. We should help."

So that was how I ended up standing under a palm tree with my crush, both of us staring up at a terrified orange fluffball, wet hair dripping down our backs, while inside, my sister celebrated her achievement and my parents worried about the punch bowl.

"I'll boost you up," Tyler said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?"

"So you can grab him. You're lighter."

I should've said no. I should've made some excuse about needing to dry off. But instead I found myself being lifted toward the palm tree, Tyler's hands surprisingly gentle on my waist, while everyone inside was probably posting stories about how ~epic~ the party was.

The cat hissed, then scrambled into my arms. I tumbled back down, cat claws digging into my shoulder, and landed against Tyler's chest.

"Nice save," he said, not stepping away.

The cat purred like a motorboat. My hair was a disaster. My sister was graduating college. And somehow, impossibly, this was the best moment of my entire year.