Chlorine Kisses

Maya's orange hair was supposed to be her signature look—vibrant, confident, unapologetic. But standing at the edge of Jessica's pool party, watching everyone splash and laugh, she felt more like a circus runaway than a cool girl. The chlorine smell hung heavy in the humid August air, and Maya kept running fingers through her hair, paranoid it would turn that weird greenish color like her mom warned about—the exact shade of cooked spinach.

"You coming in or what?"

She jumped. It was Liam, the guy whose Snapchat stories she secretly screenshot-ed sometimes. He was treading water in the deep end, dripping wet, annoyingly gorgeous.

"Yeah," Maya lied. "Just warming up."

Her phone buzzed. Three new texts from her best friend Kai, who'd bailed last minute with some weak excuse about having to feed his goldfish. Right. Maya knew the truth—Kai hated pool parties almost as much as he hated being the only one not flirting with someone.

Now Maya was stranded, alone, and Liam was still watching her like he expected something.

"Your hair's really orange," he said.

Maya's face burned. "Thanks. I guess."

"No, I mean—it's cool. Like, actually cool. Not trying-to-be-cool cool. Just..." Liam swam closer to the edge. "Anyway, you missing Kai's goldfish funeral?"

She laughed despite herself. "He forgot to name them. They're all Fish 1 through Fish 7."

"Classic Kai."

Something shifted. Liam wasn't looking at her like she was the weird orange-haired girl anymore. He was just looking.

"Hey," he said, "if you're not getting in, can you at least pass me a towel? My mom forgot to pack extra."

Maya grabbed one from the stack near the lounge chairs. As she handed it over, their fingers brushed. Electric. Strange. Real.

"Thanks," Liam said, dripping water everywhere. "Hey, after this, wanna get food? There's this place that serves the best spinach artichoke dip—"

Maya blinked. "Did you just say spinach dip?"

"What? It's good. Don't knock it 'til you try it."

She was still laughing when she finally jumped in, orange hair and all, chlorine smell be damned. The water was perfect. Liam was already waiting in the deep end, and for once, Maya wasn't worried about how she looked or what people thought. Some days, that was enough.

Some days, that was everything.