Chlorine and Orange Soda

Maya's hair was supposed to be beach waves. Instead, after three hours at Jenna's pool party, it looked like a drowned rat convention. She huddled in the shallow end, clutching her iPhone like a lifeline, scrolling through absolutely nothing while everyone else played chicken fights in the deep end.

"Yo, Maya! Come join!" Lucas yelled, splashing water as he ran — literally ran — along the pool deck like he was in a slow-motion movie scene. Of course he looked effortless. Everything about Lucas was effortless. His messy-perfect hair, the way his orange swim trunks somehow worked with everything, how he commanded the attention of half the party without even trying.

Maya's phone buzzed. Group chat blowing up with people who weren't even here.

she's so awkward lol why is she just standing there

Her thumb hovered over the screen. She could leave. Her house was like, two minutes away. She could claim stomach issues. Headache. Spontaneous combustion.

Instead she grabbed an orange cream soda from the cooler, because apparently she needed more reasons to feel like a wallflower.

"You're not gonna be in there all day, right?"

Maya jumped, spilling soda down her front. Great. Absolutely stellar.

Lucas stood there, dripping wet, grinning like he didn't just witness a certified moment.

"Sorry, I —"

"The pool's literally perfect," he said. "And you've been holding that phone for like, an hour. You're missing the best part."

"Which is what, exactly? Watching you show off?" The words came out before she could stop them.

Lucas laughed. Actually laughed. "Okay, fair. But seriously. Jenna's gonna do her annual belly flop contest in five minutes. You don't want to miss that train wreck."

He held out his hand.

"Come on. I won't let you drown. Promise."

Maya looked at her phone, then at Lucas, then at the orange soda sticky on her chest. Something shifted — maybe it was the way he wasn't looking at her like she was weird for standing alone, or maybe she was just tired of being the person watching from the sidelines.

She set her iPhone on the table.

"Fine," she said, stepping toward the pool. "But if I drown, I'm haunting you forever."

"Deal," Lucas said, already cannonballing into the deep end.

Maya jumped in after him. Hair still a mess, soda still sticky, phone still on the table. And for the first time all afternoon, she wasn't watching anything happen on a screen.