Electric Current

Maya's palms were sweating so bad she could practically fill a pool. Which was ridiculous, because she was already AT a pool—and not just any pool, but Tyler Anderson's legendary end-of-summer bash where social hierarchies dissolved like chlorinated tablets and someone's older brother always bought the good snacks.

"You gonna swim or just brood on the edge?" Riley's voice cut through her spiral. Her best friend since seventh grade, currently treading water with the kind of effortless grace that made Maya's chest do that stupid fluttery thing it'd been doing for months.

"I'm contemplatively hydrating," Maya shot back, though her face was already heating. Behind them, palm trees swayed in the thick July air, their shadows stretching long across the concrete as the sun dipped lower. Somewhere, a speaker bumped a bass line that vibrated in her teeth.

"Come in, coward." Riley splashed water at her. "Everyone's doing that chicken fight thing. We could dominate."

Maya hesitated. The truth was, she couldn't stop thinking about last week—the way Riley had rested her head on Maya's shoulder during that horror movie, how their fingers had brushed reaching for popcorn, how it had felt like lightning strike after lightning strike, and Maya hadn't known if she was terrified or exactly where she was supposed to be.

"You okay?" Riley's voice softened, paddling closer. Water dripped from her eyelashes.

"Yeah. Just..." Maya swallowed. The words had been living in her throat for weeks. "Can I tell you something?"

Riley's expression shifted. "Always."

"I think I like girls," Maya rushed out, and the pool suddenly seemed very quiet despite the noise. "Like, really like them. And specifically—"

"Oh my GOD, finally." Riley didn't miss a beat. "Maya, I've been waiting for you to figure that out since January. I was literally ABOUT to kiss you at Skylar's party but you seemed so straight and I didn't want to make things weird—"

"You were WHAT?"

"You heard me." Riley treaded closer, her smile suddenly nervous. "Unless I read this whole situation completely wrong, in which case I will literally die of embarrassment, but—"

Maya didn't let her finish. She kissed her best friend in Tyler Anderson's pool while palm trees swayed and bass thumped and somewhere, distantly, actual lightning cracked across a sky that had finally stopped feeling like it was closing in.

Later, they'd swim until their fingers pruned, wrapped in towels watching the storm roll in, Riley's hand in hers and Maya wondering how she'd ever thought she could bear keeping this inside.