Electric Orange Summer
Maya adjusted her orange bikini top for the tenth time, wishing she'd worn the one-piece like her mom suggested. The pool party at Tyler's house was supposed to be the social event of the summer, but so far she'd spent forty-five minutes holding her phone against her chest like a shield.
Across the pool, Tyler's golden retriever—Buster, she remembered from seventh grade—was doing laps around a group of seniors who looked like they'd walked straight out of a TikTok feed. Maya was fourteen, barely a freshman, and basically invisible.
"Hey, you gonna swim or just stand there looking aesthetic?"
She jumped. It was Skylar, Tyler's older sister, who'd graduated last year and somehow still made everything look effortless. Skylar's lightning-bolt earrings caught the sunlight as she tilted her head.
"I'm... thinking about it," Maya managed, feeling her face burn.
"Too much thinking happening." Skylar grabbed her hand. "Come here."
Before Maya could process what was happening, they were at the edge of the pool. The water looked inviting, terrifying.
"You know what my brother's problem is?" Skylar said quietly. "He's so worried about looking cool that he forgot how to actually be cool. That's why he's over there doing cannonballs with his boys instead of talking to you."
Maya's heart did something weird. "He wants to talk to me?"
"Duh. But now we're gonna make him chase us." Skylar pushed her in.
The water was shockingly perfect. When Maya surfaced, sputtering and laughing, Tyler was standing at the edge, grinning like an idiot. Buster was barking at the splashes.
"Race you to the other side," Tyler said, already jumping in.
Later that night, Maya would screenshot a photo from Skylar's Instagram story: her and Tyler mid-race, faces bright with genuine joy, orange sunset reflecting off the water behind them like something out of a dream.
But in that moment, she just swam, faster than she'd ever swum in her life, feeling for the first time all summer like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.