Orange Slice at the Net

Maya's hands shook as she gripped the padel racquet, the court blurring beneath her sneakers. This was stupid—she'd only joined the club because Levi had mentioned it in passing yesterday in chem. Now here she was, serving against his backhand, heart doing somersaults that had nothing to do with athletics.

"Your form's actually not trash," Levi called out, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Unlike mine."

Maya's stomach did that embarrassing flutter thing. She'd left her iPhone in her bag on purpose—no distractions, no overthinking every micro-expression, no replaying the moment later with friends who'd analyze his emoji choices like they were ancient texts.

Her phone buzzed anyway, the vibration traveling through the concrete floor. Someone's group chat exploding about something meaningless.

"Yo, you good?" Levi asked.

"Yeah, just... my charging cable's frayed or something, been dying all day." The lie tasted like cardboard.

He shrugged. "I've got a portable in my locker."

They played another rally, Maya's focus shattered by how his arms looked when he served. Then Coach blew the whistle—break time. Everyone flooded toward the benches where someone's mom had dropped off snacks.

Levi appeared beside her, holding out an orange slice. "You want? Sasha brought, like, twenty of these."

Maya took it, their fingers brushing for exactly 0.3 seconds. Her brain short-circuited. "Thanks."

"So," he said, leaning against the fence, "you doing Chloe's party Friday?"

She almost choked on her orange. "Maybe? I mean, probably?"

"Cool." He kicked at nothing. "I'll, uh, see you there then."

Maya's pulse spiked. Friday. Four days away. Four days of overthinking every interaction, every pause, every word choice. She pulled her phone from her bag—three notifications from the group chat already analyzing this exact moment.

Sasha: "he's totally into you"

Chloe: "OMG YES"

A fourth notification slid in: Levi (3:42 PM): "btw your backhand is actually fire 🔥"

Maya stared at her screen, heart doing that flutter thing again. Maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't overanalyze this one. She took another bite of orange. It was sweet, bright, impossibly hopeful.