Dude, Don't Drown the Vibe

The pool deck at Miller's house was packed—like, actually shoulder-to-shoulder situation. Leo stood near the edge, nursing a lukewarm soda, feeling like a total zombie after staying up until 3 AM scrolling through edits that didn't matter.

'Yo, Leo! You gonna just stand there or actually join the humans?' Jake called from the padel court, where he was absolutely crushing it against some seniors. Jake was somehow good at everything. Meanwhile, Leo was still figuring out how to exist without making everything weird.

'Maybe later!' Leo shouted back, even though they both knew he wasn't going to. His phone buzzed—yet another notification he'd check just to feel something.

Then Maya appeared at his side, dripping wet from swimming laps. She had that chlorine smell and hair that was somehow still cute. 'You're overthinking again, aren't you?'

Leo shrugged. 'Maybe.'

'Water you doing, Leo?' She cracked the worst pun and immediately cringed at herself. 'Oh my god, I'm sorry that was terrible.'

He laughed—actually laughed. 'That was painful. Like, impressively bad.'

'So,' Maya said, 'since you're not exactly killing it at socializing, want to help me with something?'

The next hour was a blur. Maya convinced him to help her stage the most dramatic fake drowning prank—just bobbing up when Jake did his cool-guy cannonball off the diving board. Jake was already showing off, so when Leo let out this pathetic yelp and Maya 'saved' him with zero urgency, the whole deck lost it. Not in a mean way. Like, actually laughing with them for once.

After, when everyone had migrated to the patio for pizza, Jake gave him a fist bump. 'Nice one, zombie. You alive now or what?'

Leo realized he hadn't checked his phone in forty-seven minutes. The zombie brain fog had lifted. 'Yeah,' he said, grabbing a slice. 'I think I am.'

Sometimes the water's fine. You just have to actually jump in.