Chlorine Kisses

Maya's hair was supposed to be sun-kissed blonde. Instead, it was orange. Like, aggressively orange. The kind of orange that made little kids point and ask if she'd been swimming in Fanta.

"You look fine," Chloe said for the fifteenth time, adjusting her bikini top. "It's bold. It's a statement."

"What statement? 'I accidentally bought hair dye from the gas station'?

They stood at the edge of the pool where everyone from sophomore year was already splashing around. Tyler was there, of course. Tyler, who'd dated her best friend for two months before ghosting her. Tyler, who'd somehow managed to become even more cute over summer break.

Maya felt like a zombie. Not the cool Netflix kind — the actual exhausted kind. She'd spent three nights overthinking her accidental orange hair, two nights overthinking the fact that she was still single, and one night falling down a YouTube rabbit hole about how to fix DIY hair disasters. (Spoiler: you can't really.)

"Are you gonna get in or what?" someone yelled.

Maya took a breath and slid into the pool. The cool water hit her skin like relief. Being underwater was easier. No one could see her hair. No one could see her overthinking everything. Just blue and quiet and weightless.

She surfaced to find Tyler right there.

"Hey," he said. "I like your hair. It's... different."

"That's one word for it," Maya muttered.

"No, seriously." He smiled, and it was annoying how genuine it looked. "It's cool. Not everyone can pull off orange."

"Trust me, I'm not pulling it off. It's pulling ME."

Tyler laughed. A real one. "You're funny. I forgot that about you."

They treaded water together as the sun dipped lower, painting everything golden and hazy. Maya's orange hair floated around her face like a weird, accidental halo.

"So," Tyler said, "I was thinking—"

"Tyler!" someone screamed from across the pool. "Chicken fight! You in?"

He looked at Maya, then back at the chaos. "Duty calls. But save me a dance later? There's supposed to be music when it gets dark."

"Maybe," Maya called after him, trying to play it cool even though her stomach was doing actual gymnastics.

Chloe swam over, grinning like she knew everything. "Did he just—"

"Don't make it a thing."

"Oh, it's gonna be a THING." Chloe gestured at Maya's hair. "And you said this color was a disaster. Looks like your lucky color to me."