Fox in the Deep End

Maya's friends called her Fox because of her copper hair and how she slipped away from anything that felt too real. Too intense. So when Tyler invited the whole squad to his end-of-summer pool party, she almost bailed. Almost.

Now she stood at the edge of Tyler's infinity pool, clutching her towel like a shield, while everyone else splashed like they'd been swimming their whole lives. Which, honestly, they probably had. Maya's pool experience consisted of mandatory lessons at the YMCA where she'd refused to put her face in the water until age twelve.

"You coming in or what?" Tyler called, grinning that easy grin that made everyone's stomach do that weird flippy thing. His golden retriever, Buster, paddled happily around the shallow end, living his best life.

"Yeah, just warming up," Maya lied. She smoothed down her bikini bottom for the fiftieth time.

Jensen emerged from the water, shaking droplets from his perfect hair. "Water's perfect, Fox. You're missing out."

Maya hated how Jensen used her nickname like they were tight. They weren't. He'd barely acknowledged her existence until this summer when he'd suddenly decided she was worth his time. Suspicious, but whatever.

She slid into the pool slowly, letting her body adjust. The cool water felt like permission to breathe again. She'd been holding everything in for weeks — her parents' fight about her college applications, the confusing thing with Tyler that might be nothing, the way her chest tightened every time she thought about next year when everyone scattered.

"Dude, check that out," someone said.

A REAL fox trotted out of the nearby woods, sleek and unbothered. It paused at the pool's edge, eyeing them like they were the weird ones for basically living in giant water bowls. Even Buster stopped paddling to stare.

"Is that... what is happening?" Maya whispered.

The fox dipped one paw in, shook it off in pure disgust, and vanished back into the trees.

"Legend," Tyler said.

Later, over burgers that were definitely burnt but nobody cared, Maya discovered something green and embarrassing in her teeth. Spinach, from the salad she'd nervously devoured earlier. She'd been talking to Tyler for like twenty minutes with spinach in her teeth.

"You had something," Tyler said gently, when she returned from the bathroom, wanting to die. "It's fine. Nobody noticed."

"You noticed."

"I notice everything about you." His face flushed. "I mean. That came out weird."

Maya laughed, really laughed, for the first time all summer. Maybe being Fox wasn't about slipping away. Maybe it was about finally staying put.