Orange Lightning at the Pool

The thunder cracked overhead as Maya scrambled onto the pool deck, clutching her friend Leo's towel. They'd been swimming laps until the lifeguard's whistle had signaled everyone out—a storm was rolling in fast.

"Your iPhone's still in your bag, right?" Leo asked, shaking water from his hair like a golden retriever.

Maya froze. Her phone. She'd left it on the bench near the diving board.

She bolted back across the wet concrete just as the sky erupted. Lightning struck somewhere close—too close—the flash turning everything a bizarre, electric orange for half a second. In that surreal illumination, she saw her bag teetering on the edge of the pool bench, exposed to the coming deluge.

She grabbed it just as the heavens opened.

They huddled under the snack bar's awning, watching the rain hammer the pool surface, creating thousands of tiny craters. Water dripped from the awning's edge in a curtain that separated them from the world.

"That was the most extra thing I've ever done," Maya laughed, checking her phone. "And it survived. Barely."

Leo grinned, orange pool cone in hand from somewhere. "Worth it though."

"For what? My phone?"

"No, dummy. For this." He gestured at the storm, at the two of them squeezed together on a single bench, shoulders touching, rain turning everything beyond their little shelter into a blur. "Sometimes you need a little lightning to figure out what matters."

Maya's heart did something stupid. She took a bite of his orange snow cone to hide her face. It was melting too fast, sticky-sweet on her fingers, and Leo was looking at her in a way that maybe wasn't just-friends anymore.

"Good?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Actually, it's perfect."

The storm raged on, but Maya was thinking that sometimes getting caught in the rain was exactly what you needed.