Midnight at the Murphy's Pool

The pool party at Kylie's house was supposed to be legendary, but honestly? My social battery was at 2%.

I hid near the edge of the pool, clutching my red solo cup like it was a lifeline. Everyone else looked so effortless — Jake doing cannonballs, Skylar and her squad doing TikTok dances, the whole vibe just... main character energy.

Meanwhile, I was just background extra #47.

"Hey, you good?"

I jumped. It was Leo, the quiet guy from my English lit class. He was standing way too close, his black hair damp from a recent swim.

"Yeah, just... taking it all in," I lied. My voice cracked. Smooth.

He smirked, like he knew. "Wanna get out of here? Found something crazy behind the shed."

Against all my better judgment — and my mom's lectures about stranger danger — I followed him.

Behind the garden shed, past Kylie's dad's vintage padel court, was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. Someone had built this surreal sculpture garden. A stone fox with glowing amber eyes, a cat carved from driftwood that looked perpetually mid-pounce, and in the center — a miniature sphinx made entirely of recycled bottle caps.

"My little sister's art phase," Leo explained, like this was normal. "She's going through her weird genius era."

"This is... actually iconic?" I found myself saying. For real, it was disturbingly good.

"Yeah." He sat down on the grass, and after a moment, I joined him. "Sometimes I feel like that cat though, you know? Like everyone else is just living their main character life and I'm stuck watching from the sidelines."

I looked at him, really looked at him, and felt something shift. "Same. It's like, why is everyone else so good at being a person?"

We sat there for twenty minutes, talking about everything and nothing. School, our toxic theater group, how neither of us had our licenses yet because life was just... a lot.

When we finally walked back to the party, Jake was doing his third cannonball of the night and the vibe had shifted to chaotic energy.

"Wanna play padel tomorrow?" Leo asked, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"I don't even know what that is," I laughed.

"Perfect. I'll teach you."

For the first time all night, my social battery didn't feel like it was dying. Maybe background extras could have their own storyline after all.