Diving In

Marcus had been running from the pool party for three hours. Literally running. His Nike Air Max hit the pavement as he jogged another lap around the block, sweat dripping down his temple like he'd been swimming laps instead of avoiding them.

"You're being dramatic," his sister Maya had said that morning. "It's just a pool party. Everyone's gonna be there."

Everyone. Including Jasmine. The girl who'd sat behind him in bio since freshman year, the one who always smelled like coconut sunscreen and confidence.

The problem wasn't Jasmine. It was the swimming part. Marcus could deadlift 275 pounds, could outrun everyone on the wrestling team, but put him in a swimsuit around other people? That was a different kind of exposure.

His phone buzzed. Amber: "dude where r u?? Bull's doing cannonballs off the diving board rn it's hilarious"

Bull. That's what everyone called Tyler since he'd gone viral body-slamming through a inflatable pool at homecoming. Tyler was everything Marcus wasn't—totally comfortable in his own skin, zero filter, the kind of guy who'd papaya-a-roni pizza just to see people's reactions.

Marcus stopped at the corner store. They had those weird exotic fruit displays now. He grabbed a papaya on impulse, dropped five bucks on the counter, and kept walking. What was he doing? This wasn't him.

Except maybe it was. Maybe the version of himself he'd been curating for years—tough guy, athlete, someone who didn't try new things or put himself out there—was getting old.

He turned back toward the party.

The backyard was already chaos when he arrived. Tyler was indeed attempting something dangerous off the diving board while a crowd cheered. Marcus spotted Jasmine immediately, laughing with her friends by the snack table. She looked comfortable. Happy.

"Marcus!" Amber waved him over. "Finally! We were about to send a search party."

He set the papaya on the snack table like it was the most normal thing in the world. Jasmine raised an eyebrow, smiling.

"What's with the fruit?" she asked.

"Trying new things," Marcus said, and his voice didn't even shake. "You want some? It's supposed to be life-changing or something."

Tyler surfaced from the pool, gasping. "What's life-changing? Did someone say papaya?"

Marcus laughed, and then he was pulling off his shirt and diving into the water, and it wasn't terrifying at all. It was just water. Just people. Just life, finally happening instead of something he watched from the sidelines.