Electric Blue

The pool party was already lit when Maya arrived late, clutching her towel like a shield. Across the deck, Kennedy's laugh cut through the humidity—that effortless, crystal-clear sound that made everything feel easy. Maya's stomach did that stupid flip thing it always did when Kennedy looked her way.

"You made it!" Kennedy splashed over, droplets sliding down their arms like stars. "We were about to play chicken. You're on my team."

"Hard pass," Maya said, but she was already stepping into the water, which felt suspiciously warm for someone who'd claimed they'd "literally just jumped in."

Her phone buzzed in her bag. The group chat was blowing up with screenshots of some drama at North High—apparently someone had confessed during lunch using actual printed notes, like a medieval peasant. Maya's fingers hovered over the screen.

"You're not gonna check it?" Kennedy asked, treading water nearby. Their eyes caught the pool lights, turning them electric blue.

"Let them burn," Maya said, and meant it.

Lightning cracked across the sky, sudden and ferocious, illuminating everything—Kennedy's startled expression, the way the pool surface rippled like silver paper, Maya's own hands, which looked foreign and pale beneath the surface. Someone screamed playfully, but the undertow of the moment felt heavier than that.

"Everyone out!" Mrs. Chen shouted from the patio. "Storm's coming in fast!"

They scrambled up the ladder, dripping and breathless. Kennedy grabbed Maya's hand to pull her up, and the contact sent something genuine and terrifying racing through her chest—like the lightning overhead, but quieter, something meant only for her.

Then Kennedy was gone, toweling off their hair, already part of the crowd again. Maya stood at the pool's edge, toes gripping wet concrete, heart hammering against ribs that felt too small to contain it.

She looked back at the dark, undulating water. For a second, she considered diving back in—swimming down to the bottom where it was silent and still, where things like feelings and fear couldn't reach her. But then Kennedy glanced over their shoulder, caught her eye, and smiled.

Maya smiled back, a real one this time, and stepped onto the patio, leaving the pool's electric blue glow behind her.