Electric Blue Summer

The pool party was supposed to be Chloe's chance to finally kiss Ethan. She'd spent three hours perfecting her eyeliner, five more deciding between the neon bikini or the one-piece that said 'cool but approachable.' Now she sat on the diving board, iphone clutched like a lifeline, watching him cannonball into the deep end.

"Yo Chloe, you're literally sitting there like you're guarding the pool," Marcus yelled, splashing water her way. She barely registered the droplets hitting her legs.

Her instagram story was already curated: aesthetic shot of the pool lights reflecting on the water, a boomerang of someone doing a backflip, a strategically blurry photo of Ethan laughing. Her followers needed to see she was living her best life.

Then the first lightning flash cracked across the sky.

"Everyone out of the pool NOW!" Chloe's brother Ryan shouted from the patio. "Y'all are literally asking to be fried."

But Ethan didn't move. He treaded water in the deep end, grinning up at the storm clouds like they were the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"Ethan, get out!" Chloe called, finally finding her voice.

"One second," he yelled back. "Look at the water!"

Another lightning bolt — closer this time. The whole pool illuminated with an electric blue glow, making Ethan's wet hair look like a halo. Chloe stood up, heart pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat.

He swam to the edge, reached up, and her iphone slipped from sweaty fingers. *Plop.*

"NO!" She dove in after it, chlorine stinging her eyes, phone sinking deeper. Ethan grabbed her wrist, pulled her up.

They surfaced simultaneously, gasping, and lightning flashed again — so bright she could see every freckle on his nose, every droplet on his eyelashes.

"Your phone," he whispered, "is probably fine. They're waterproof now, right?"

She stared at him, really looked at him for the first time all night. Not through an iphone screen, not through an instagram filter. Just Ethan, with chlorine-slicked hair and the most ridiculous smile she'd ever seen.

"I don't care about the phone," she heard herself say. And she meant it.

The storm broke open, rain pouring down as everyone else scrambled inside. But they stayed there, treading water in the lightning-glowing pool, and Chloe had never felt more alive, more present, more ready for whatever happened next.

Her iphone could wait until morning. Some moments weren't meant to be captured. They were just meant to be lived.