Fox in the Deep End

The pool party was supposed to be lowkey. Just a few people from sophomore year hanging out at Maya's house. But for me, any social gathering was basically walking into the lion's den dressed as a raw steak.

I stood by the edge of the pool, clutching my towel like it was the only thing keeping me alive. Everyone else was already in the water, splashing around, laughing at inside jokes I didn't understand. Typical Friday night energy, and I was somehow missing whatever gene made this stuff feel natural.

"Hey, you gonna stand there all night or actually get in?"

It was Riley. Of course it was Riley. She was sprawled out on one of those ridiculous pink flamingo floats, sunglasses on despite it being literally 9 PM. Her nickname around school was Fox—something about being clever and impossible to catch, though honestly I think she just started calling herself that in seventh grade and it stuck.

"I'm thinking about it," I lied. I had absolutely no intention of swimming. My hair was finally behaving, and chlorine was basically its mortal enemy.

"You've been 'thinking about it' for like twenty minutes," Riley said, paddling her float closer. "Look, the water's not that deep. Unless you're scared of the deep end or something."

"I'm not scared."

"Then prove it."

Everyone had stopped what they were doing. The splashing had died down. Suddenly all eyes were on me, and my face was doing that incredibly annoying thing where it turned bright red for absolutely no reason.

I realized I had exactly two options: back down and look lame, or jump in and look like an idiot trying to swim in clothes I definitely should have changed out of first.

Fine.

I dropped my towel on one of the deck chairs and jumped.

The water was freezing. I came up sputtering while everyone laughed—but like, in a good way? Not mean laughing. Riley was actually cracking up, and when she fell off her float trying to high-five me, I started laughing too.

Maybe pool parties weren't so terrible after all. Or maybe I just needed to stop overthinking everything and just jump in sometimes. Literally and metaphorically.

"Alright Fox," I said, splashing water at her. "You coming back in or what?"

"Try me," she grinned.

Okay, maybe I could get used to this.