Goldfish in the Deep End

The pool party at Jessica's house was supposed to be my chance to finally talk to Tyler. You know, THE Tyler who sat behind me in bio and always had those perfect waves in his hair even after gym class. But instead, here I was, clutching a plastic bag containing my carnival prize — a goldfish I'd won because the guy running the booth felt bad that I couldn't land the ring toss even once.

"Nice fish," said Marcus, Jessica's older brother, who was definitely too old to still be hanging around high school pool parties. "What's its name?"

"I haven't named it yet," I muttered, trying to hide the bag behind my back like it was contraband.

The pool was already packed with people from school. Ashley and her squad were taking mirror selfies in the shallow end, making those exaggerated pose faces that looked nothing like their actual expressions. Tyler was doing laps, his strokes smooth and effortless, while I stood on the deck in my orange bikini that I'd bought online and was now realizing was way more fluorescent than the photos suggested.

I set the goldfish bag on a patio table and tried to look casual, scrolling through my phone even though I had zero notifications. That's when it happened — Jessica's dog, a golden retriever with zero personal boundaries, came bounding out of nowhere and knocked right into the table.

The bag flew. The goldfish, now named doomed-for-sure in my head, landed somewhere near the diving board. I scrambled after it, my flip-flops slapping against the concrete, and practically collided with Tyler as he pulled himself out of the water.

"Whoa," he said, water streaming down his face. "You okay?"

"My fish," I gasped, pointing at the flopping goldfish near the pool edge.

Without hesitating, Tyler scooped it up and dropped it back in my bag. "You won a goldfish? That's actually kind of iconic."

We ended up sitting on the pool edge for the next hour, legs dangling in the cool water, watching my new pet swim in tiny circles. I learned that Tyler was terrified of deep water despite being on the swim team, and he confessed that he thought my orange bikini was cool because it wasn't like everyone else's basic black or navy.

"Maybe next time," he said, "we should actually hang out when I'm not fresh out of the pool and you're not having a fish emergency."

"I'd like that," I said, my heart doing that stupid fluttery thing it always did in romcoms but I thought was just dramatic license.

The goldfish survived. I named it Skittles because of the orange incident. And Tyler actually texted me that night. Sometimes the most embarrassing moments become the best stories — especially when they involve water, a near-death experience for a carnival fish, and a crush who turns out to be kind of perfect.