Chlorine Kisses and Papaya Dreams

The pool deck radiated heat like a massive oven, and Maya's palms were sweating for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the ninety-degree weather. She adjusted her swimsuit straps for the fiftieth time, her heart doing that familiar fluttery thing whenever Jake walked past.

"You coming in or what?" Chloe called from the water, her voice slicing through Maya's spiral of anxiety. "You've been standing there looking like a deer in headlights for ten minutes."

Maya's best friend since elementary school, Chloe had zero concept of social anxiety. She was currently treading water near Jake, who was effortlessly floating on his back like he owned the pool. Jake Martinez, who'd finally noticed Maya existed approximately three weeks ago, and who she'd been strategically lowkey crushing on since seventh grade.

"I'm coming!" Maya yelled back, grabbing her phone and shoving it in her bag. Her mom had texted her earlier about some new vitamin D supplement she wanted Maya to take because apparently Maya never went outside anymore, which was ridiculous and also completely accurate.

She slid into the cool water, letting it wash away the stickiness of nervousness. Jake noticed her immediately.

"Maya! Finally!" He swam over, droplets cascading down his stupid perfect face. "We were just talking about that baseball game yesterday. You came, right?"

"Yeah," she managed, trying to play it cool despite the fact that she could barely breathe. "That home run in the seventh inning was insane."

"Yo, who wants the rest of this papaya?" Chloe's older brother Marcus called from the patio table, holding up a bowl of orange fruit chunks. "Mom went through this tropical phase at the grocery store."

"Pass it here," Jake shouted, then grinned at Maya. "Have you ever had papaya? It's actually pretty good."

"Never tried it," she admitted, which felt like admitting she'd never seen a movie or something equally socially catastrophic.

Jake's eyes lit up. "Okay, we're fixing that right now."

He hauled himself out of the water with easy athletic grace, and Maya followed, trying to match his confidence but mostly feeling like a baby deer learning to walk. Marcus tossed the bowl, and Jake caught it one-handed because apparently the universe had decided to make him perfect at everything.

"Here." He held out a chunk on a fork. "First taste's free."

Maya leaned forward, her pulse racing, and let him feed her papaya while her friend watched from the pool, looking like she knew exactly what was happening and was absolutely living for it. The fruit was sweet and unexpectedly perfect, kind of like this moment that she'd been secretly hoping for all summer.

"Well?" Jake asked, his brown eyes genuinely curious.

Maya swallowed. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

"See? I've got good taste," he said, and she couldn't tell if he meant the fruit or something else entirely.

"Sure, Martinez," she shot back, falling into their easy banter. "Keep telling yourself that."

Chloe swam over to the edge, resting her chin on her arms. "You two are literally ridiculous. Everyone knows this already, you know."

"Knows what?" Maya's voice came out higher than intended.

"That you've been crushing on each other since basically forever," Chloe said with the bluntness that made her simultaneously the best and most annoying friend on the planet.

Jake laughed, but his ears turned pink. "I mean, she's not wrong."

The summer sun seemed to shine brighter as Maya's heart did something completely unhelpful and wonderful all at once. Maybe her mom was right about the vitamin D thing — some things really were better outside.

"Okay but seriously," she said, already planning exactly how she'd text Chloe about this later with way too many emojis. "Can I have more papaya?"

Jake's smile was everything she'd imagined and more. "All the papaya you want."