Chlorine Hearts

The pool party of the year. Jessica's annual July 4th bash. The kind everyone at Northwood High talked about for weeks.

I stood by the chain-link fence, clutching my phone like a lifeline. Maya was already inside, radiant in her new bikini, surrounded by the popular crowd that had somehow become her people this summer. My former best friend, now practically a stranger.

"You coming in or what?" She waved at me, her smile genuine enough. "Water's perfect!"

I hesitated. The pool shimmered turquoise, dotted with inflatables and bodies that seemed so confident in their skin. Me? I'd spent the last three months hiding in oversized hoodies, convinced my body was wrong in some fundamental way.

Then Tyler Rodriguez surfaced near the edge, water cascading down his shoulders like something out of a movie. He was the kind of beautiful that made your brain malfunction.

"Hey," he said, looking directly at me. "You saving that vitamin D deficiency for winter or what?"

Wait, what?

My face burned. "I—what?"

"Your hoodie." He grinned. "Summer's halfway gone, you know."

Maya materialized beside him. "Oh my god, Tyler, leave her alone. She's been ... dealing with stuff." She looked at me with that careful concern that made me want to scream.

Something snapped. Maybe it was the humidity. Maybe it was three months of feeling like a ghost in my own life.

I dropped my phone on a lawn chair. I yanked off my hoodie. I cannonballed into the pool.

The shock of cold water knocked the air out of me. When I surfaced, sputtering, everyone was staring.

Tyler started laughing. Not mean laughter. The good kind.

"Finally," Maya said, and something in her expression shifted. "You coming to get pizza later?"

"Yeah," I said, treading water, feeling lighter than I had in months. "Yeah, I am."

Sometimes you just have to jump. Even when you're terrified. Especially then.