Goldfish Nights at Jensen's Pool

The **water** in Jensen's infinity pool glowed that perfect electric blue, the kind that looks filtered on Instagram even without a preset. I hovered at the edge, clutching my **iphone** like it was a lifeline, scrolling through absolutely nothing while everyone else splashed and laughed like this was just another Friday night.

"You coming in or what?" Maya called from the deep end. She looked effortless in that one-piece, while I stood there overthinking everything like always.

"Yeah, just gotta—" check my reflection, make sure my hair wasn't doing that weird flip-out thing, pretend I wasn't terrified of cannonballs—"finish this text."

My mom had packed me this weird health snack situation before I left. "Try the **papaya**," she'd said, all excited because it was apparently on sale at Trader Joe's. I'd tried one bite and nearly choked on how wrong it tasted—like melon that forgot how to be sweet. Now it was sitting in Jensen's fancy fruit platter next to the actually good pineapple, looking sad and out of place. Kinda like me.

I finally got in the water, doing that slow descent where you pretend you're not cold while everyone stares. Then I saw Jake—Jake, who I'd had a crush on since October—standing by the snack table, eating **spinach** dip like his life depended on it. And then I saw it: a giant piece of **spinach** stuck in his front teeth.

The classic dilemma: tell him and risk the awkward interaction, or let him keep talking to the senior girls with green stuff in his teeth?

"Hey," I said, swimming over to the edge before I could overthink it. "You've got a little—" I pointed to my own teeth.

Jake's face went bright red. "Oh my god, thanks. I've been talking to like, half the party like this."

"No one noticed," I lied, because I'm nice like that.

Later, when everyone started doing that truth-or-dare thing that always ends in either tears or total chaos, someone dared Jensen to swallow his sister's pet **goldfish** whole.

"Dude, no way." Jensen shook his head. "Mr. Glubbers and I have a history."

"Mr. Glubbers?" Maya called out. "That's literally a carnival **goldfish**, Jensen. It probably doesn't even know your name."

We all cracked up, and for the first time all night, I actually felt like I was part of whatever this was. Not just watching from the edge with my phone and my anxiety.

When my mom picked me up later, she asked how it went. "Did you talk to anyone new? Did you have fun?"

"Yeah," I said, and for once it wasn't a lie. "Yeah, actually."

My phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from an unknown number: hey this is jake from the party thanks again for the save lol mr glubbers

I smiled at the screen, already typing back, and thought: maybe next time I'd actually get in the water first. No overthinking required.