Fox at the Pool Party

Maya's palms were sweating so bad she could practically fill a swimming pool. The pool party at Jessica's house was basically social suicide waiting to happen, and her best friend Sam had already bailed to watch some show on basic cable because his parents refused to pay for streaming.

"You coming in or what?" called Tyler, aka Fox—dude had been sly as one since middle school when he somehow got excused from every single detention.

Maya's stomach did that annoying flip-flop thing it always did around him. She'd been crushing on Fox since seventh period English, when he'd made her laugh so hard she snorted orange juice everywhere. Most embarrassing moment of her life, or at least it had been until now.

"Maybe in a bit," she called back, voice cracking slightly. Perfect.

She'd spent forty minutes on her hair, another twenty picking an outfit that said I'm not trying too hard but also please notice I exist. And now she was just standing there like a total weirdo while everyone else splashed around in the illuminated blue water.

Her phone buzzed. Sam: *Dude, there's literally a baby fox in my backyard. Wild.*

Maya snorted. Typical.

"Hey, Earth to Maya."

She jumped. Fox was standing right there, dripping wet, shirt somewhere MIA. Not fair. His abs were basically a war crime against her emotional stability.

"What's up?" she managed, proud her voice didn't sound like a dying dolphin.

"You got something..." He gestured at his teeth. "Right there."

Oh god. OH GOD.

She rushed to the mirrored patio doors and yep—tiny green piece of spinach from the spinach artichoke dip she'd nervous-ate earlier. Very much visible. Very much stuck in her front teeth like a tiny green billboard announcing her perpetual awkwardness to the universe.

"Awesome," she muttered. "This is it. This is how I die."

Fox laughed, but not like mean laughing. Like, actually laughing. "Nah, you're good. I had pepper in my teeth for like three hours at homecoming last year. Nobody noticed."

"They absolutely noticed."

"Okay, they definitely noticed. But it's fine. Want me to help you get it?"

And maybe it was the pool lights reflecting in his eyes, or maybe she was just tired of overthinking everything, but Maya found herself saying, "Only if you swim with me after."

Fox grinned. "Deal."

As they jumped into the cool water together, Maya's phone buzzed again in her bag. Sam would definitely want to hear about this later—probably more than the baby fox in his backyard.