Orange Crush at Sunset

Maya's palms were literally sweating as she clutched her phone, thumb hovering over Marcus's contact. Friday night bonfire at the beach and she'd been standing awkwardly near the cool kids' circle for twenty minutes, nursing a warm LaCroix like it was her only friend.

"You gonna stand there all night or actually talk to him?" Cara appeared beside her, smirking. Maya's best friend since seventh grade, Cara had zero patience for Maya's overthinking tendencies.

"I'm building up to it," Maya whispered, though her heart hammered against her ribs. Marcus was laughing at something across the bonfire, that laugh that made her stomach do little flips. They'd been lab partners all semester, had that moment last Tuesday when their hands brushed reaching for the same beaker, and she'd been overanalyzing it ever since.

Then chaos erupted. Some guy's chocolate lab came tearing through the party, knocking over a stack of sodas. An orange Crush exploded everywhere — on Marcus's white hoodie, on the sand, somehow even splattering Maya's favorite shoes.

"Buster!" the guy yelled, chasing after his dog. The lab was living his best life, galloping through teenagers' legs like it was his personal obstacle course.

Maya rushed to help Marcus with his hoodie. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she started, even though it wasn't even her dog.

Marcus was laughing, actually laughing, wiping orange sticky stuff from his sleeve. "This is literally the most Florida thing that's ever happened to me."

Their eyes met. Firelight flickering between them, waves crashing somewhere beyond, orange soda dripping onto the sand like some weird romantic sacrifice.

"Your phone," Marcus said, nodding at her hand.

Maya looked down. She'd accidentally hit record on her iPhone mid-panic. The screen showed 0:47 of footage, mostly blurry shots of sand and someone's Vans and a chocolate lab living his best life.

"My camera roll is gonna be so disappointed," she said, and Marcus laughed again — really laughed, head tilted back, orange-stained hoodie and all.

"Wanna get away from this chaos?" he asked. "There's a tide pool over there that's actually pretty cool."

Maya's palms were still sweating, but as they walked toward the water, she decided maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all.