Dead Screen Summer

Maya's phone sat on the pool deck like a dead thing. The screen had gone black halfway through Tyler's story—something about a party at Jordan's house—and now she was stuck in this awkward silence, clutching her useless iPhone like a lifeline.

"You good?" Tyler asked, floating in the water with that easy grin that made her stomach do weird things.

"Yeah, just... died." She waved the phone. "Classic timing, right?"

Above them, the sky had turned that weird greenish color that meant trouble. Her mom would be texting any second. Maya had perfected the art of being a zombie for her parents' texts—surfacing with "k" or "coming" while barely looking up from her screen. But without the phone, she was actually here. Actually present.

Tyler splashed water at her. "Get in already. Everyone else bailed when they saw the clouds."

"I'm not swimming in a storm, Tyler."

"Live a little."

That's when it happened—the first crack of lightning, so bright it bleached everything white. For a split second, the world went negative image. The pool surface glittered like shattered diamonds.

Maya jumped. "Okay, universe heard you. I'm going inside."

But Tyler didn't move. "Wait."

He treaded water, looking at her with this expression she couldn't read. The storm was rolling in fast, that heavy pressure in the air that makes everything feel electric and dangerous.

"Your phone," he said. "What was Tyler going to say? About Jordan's party?"

She blinked. "What?"

"In the message. What were you going to say?"

Maya's heart hammered. Tyler—the real Tyler, not the digital version she'd been analyzing and overanalyzing for months—was waiting for an answer. No screen. No filter. No deleting and rewriting three times before hitting send.

"I was going to say," she started, then stopped. Then started again. "That I'd go. If you were going."

Another flash of lightning, closer this time. The thunder followed almost immediately, shaking the ground beneath them.

Tyler's grin returned, slower this time. "I'm going."

"Good," she said, and something in her chest unlocked. "Good."

They ran inside just as the sky opened up, her useless iPhone still sitting on the pool deck where she'd dropped it—forgotten, for once, in favor of something real.