Electric at the Pool

The community pool hummed with Saturday afternoon energy. Mia positioned herself perfectly on the lounge chair — casual, effortless, definitely not watching Chase emerge from the water like some kind of hologram. Because she wasn't. That would be weird.

"You're literally spying on him," Brooklyn whispered, sliding sunglasses down her nose. "Again."

"I'm observing," Mia corrected, though her face betrayed her. "There's a difference."

Brooklyn snorted. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. He's looking at you, by the way."

Mia's stomach did that thing. That annoying, fluttery thing. Because Chase, with his perpetually wet hair and laugh that sounded like summer itself, was absolutely, positively looking at her. And she was swimming in the deep end of her feelings, completely out of her depth.

Then it happened — the sky opened up. Lightning cracked across the horizon like the world's biggest camera flash, and the lifeguard's whistle pierced through the chatter.

"Everyone out NOW! Storm's moving in fast!"

Chaos erupted. People scrambled for towels, phones, bags. Mia grabbed her stuff and started toward the parking lot when someone called her name.

"Hey! Mia!" Chase jogged over, shirt still in hand, rain already beginning to speckle his shoulders. "You okay? You looked kind of far away."

The thunder rattled through her chest. Or maybe that was her heart. Impossible to tell anymore.

"Just thinking," she managed. "About... stuff."

"Cool stuff?" He grinned, and the lightning flashed again, illuminating everything — his freckles, the way his hair stuck up in the back, the way he was looking at her like she was actually interesting.

"The coolest," she said, surprising herself. "My brother's band practice. They're awful but they think they're revolutionary."

Chase laughed, and it was better than the thunder. "My sister thinks she's a photographer now. She keeps making me pose in the most awkward places. Last week it was in a ditch."

"A ditch?"

"She called it 'edgy.' I called it 'terrifyingly muddy.'"

Another lightning strike, closer this time. They should have been running to their cars. Instead, they stood there as the first real drops fell, grinning like idiots.

"We should probably —" Mia started.

"Yeah." Chase hesitated. "But hey, maybe next time I'll let you spy on me from closer up?"

Heat crept up her neck. "I wasn't —"

"You were totally spying," he said, backing away with a smirk. "It's okay. I was doing the same thing yesterday."

He winked — actually winked — and sprinted toward his car as the sky opened up completely.

Mia stood in the downpour, wetter than she'd ever been from any swimming session, electricity buzzing through her veins. Sometimes getting caught in the storm was exactly what you needed.