Papaya at the Deep End

Maya stood at the edge of the pool party like she'd accidentally wandered into the wrong dimension. Chloe's house practically screamed money—from the cascading water feature that probably cost more than Maya's family's car to the actual papaya slices arranged artfully around the hummus plate. Who even ate papaya? Definitely not anyone from Maya's neighborhood.

The pool shimmered like something from a music video, all turquoise and inviting, but Maya's swimsuit felt three seasons out of style. She'd spent forty-five minutes this morning trying to convince herself that the slight pilling on her bikini wasn't noticeable. Now, watching the popular crowd splash and laugh, she felt like she was observing an entirely different species.

"Yo, Maya!" Ethan waved from the deep end. "Get in here! The water's perfect!"

Her stomach did that thing where it tried to exit through her throat. Ethan was the kind of cute that made girls forget their own names. Maya had spent approximately seven thousand hours this semester imagining scenarios where he noticed her existed. None of those scenarios involved her somehow ending up at Chloe's party through a series of increasingly unlikely events that started with her mom's friend knowing Chloe's aunt.

She walked toward the pool like she was approaching a cliff edge. The papaya sat there on a platter, bright orange and somehow mocking her. Could she just grab a piece and pretend she totally ate exotic fruit all the time? Would that make her seem sophisticated or like she was trying too hard?

"You gonna stand there all day or actually swim?" It was Chloe herself, looking like a pool goddess with perfect waterproof mascara.

"Right. Swimming. Yep." Maya's voice cracked. Smooth.

She slipped into the water, and something shifted. The cool liquid swallowed her anxiety, and suddenly she was just another body in the pool, splashing toward Ethan. He grinned at her like she'd always belonged there.

"Check this out." He produced a water gun from literally nowhere and sprayed her directly in the face.

Maya sputtered, wiped her eyes, and somehow she was laughing. Really laughing. Not fake laugh, but the kind where your stomach hurts and you can't breathe.

"Oh, you're going down, Park." She grabbed a float and paddled toward him like her dignity depended on it.

By the time she climbed out of the pool hours later, pruney fingers and exhausted, Maya grabbed a slice of papaya from the platter. It was weird. It was kind of amazing. She took another bite and watched Ethan laugh at something Chloe said.

Maybe she wasn't part of that world. But she'd survived the deep end, and tomorrow she'd figure out the rest. Tonight, she'd count that as a win.