Catfish Court at Midnight

I was lurking behind the padel court fence, phone clutched in my sweaty hand like it held state secrets. Okay, technically it did. My friend group's Groupchat had been weird all week, and I needed answers. Was I being catfished by my own best friends? The irony of literally catfishing myself while an actual stray cat hissed from the bushes wasn't lost on me.

The cat—orange, judgmental, obviously fed by someone else—stared at me like I was pathetic. Honestly, fair. I was sixteen and spying on my friends through an iphone crack I'd been too broke to fix since March.

SPLASH.

Water erupted from the pool area. I jumped, nearly dropping my phone into the hydrangeas. Through the fence slats, I saw them—Mia, Jordan, and the new girl, Skylar. They were in the pool, fully clothed, laughing so hard I could hear it from where I stood frozen. Skylar pushed Jordan under, and when he came up sputtering, they were all smiling like they'd known each other forever.

That's when it hit me: they weren't leaving me out. They were becoming something new, and I was too busy watching from the sidelines to notice the space beside me had emptied.

The orange cat wound around my ankles, purring now. Yeah, yeah, you told me so, I thought, scratching behind its ears.

My phone buzzed. A notification: Groupchat (3) — "Yo, where you at? We saved you a spot in the pool if you're not too cool for it now 😜"

I stared at the message. The cat meowed, impatient, like dude, just go already. And maybe it was the summer heat or maybe I was just done feeling like the weirdo on the outside of everything, but I texted back: "Omg wait. Two minutes."

The cat trotted away like its work here was done. I pushed through the fence, and when Jordan saw me, he yelled, "Finally!" and splashed water so hard it soaked my phone.

"My phone!" I shrieked, but I was already laughing, already running toward them, already diving into water that felt like forgiveness, like starting over, like maybe I wasn't so bad at this growing up thing after all.