Orange Slice at the Deep End

I stood by the snack table at Tyler's party, clutching a paper plate like it was my only lifeline. The pool shimmered blue and tempting, but I wasn't about to reveal that I—a fifteen-year-old guy—couldn't swim. Not when Jessica was there, looking perfect in her orange bikini, laughing at something Tyler said.

"Hey, you gonna eat that papaya?" My best friend Marcus appeared beside me, already reaching for the exotic fruit someone's parents had obviously spent too much money on.

"Bro, who even brings papaya to a pool party?" I said, but I handed it over. Marcus would eat anything.

Then Jessica walked over, water dripping from her hair like she was in a shampoo commercial. "You guys are so quiet over here. Are you, like, scared of the water or something?"

My face burned. Of course she noticed.

"Nah," Marcus said around a mouthful of papaya. "We're just conserving our energy for the real party."

Tyler's cat, a fat orange tabby named Mango, jumped onto the table and started eyeing Marcus's fruit. The table wobbled. The fishbowl—why there was a fishbowl at a pool party, I still don't know—slid toward the edge.

I lunged for it. So did Jessica. Our hands collided, and suddenly the bowl tipped. The goldfish flopped onto the table, gasping.

"Oh my GOD," Jessica shrieked, but she was laughing.

I grabbed the fish and sprinted to the pool, barefoot over the hot concrete, and launched myself into the shallow end before I could process what I was doing. The water closed over my head. I couldn't breathe. I flailed, swallowing chlorinated water, panic rising in my chest like I was being swallowed whole.

Strong hands grabbed me. Tyler, pulling me up. I coughed, gasping, while somewhere in the distance the goldfish swam away into the deep blue, free.

"Dude," Tyler said, panting. "You saved Jerry. That's actually kinda iconic."

Jessica wrapped a towel around my shoulders. "That was the weirdest, most heroic thing I've ever seen."

I looked at Mango the cat finishing off the papaya on the now-empty table, Marcus filming everything on his phone, and Jessica smiling at me like I wasn't just the guy who almost drowned in three feet of water.

"Yeah," I said, shivering. "I guess."

Maybe pool parties weren't so bad after all. Even if everyone now knew I couldn't swim.