Papaya Courage

The papaya sat on the paper plate like some alien experiment gone wrong—bright orange flesh speckled with black seeds, looking way too exotic for the Johnson County Fair.

"You gotta try it, Maya," said Sam, my best friend since kindergarten, who was currently wearing the most ridiculous cowboy hat I'd ever seen. "My abuela says it's an aphrodisiac."

"Gross, Sam," I said, but I picked up a fork anyway. Anything was better than watching Tyler Rodriguez—the human equivalent of a mechanical bull ride that kept going when you wanted it to stop—chat up Jessica Martinez by the funnel cake stand.

Sam adjusted his hat, which was literally shaped like a bull's head, complete with horns. "I'm gonna ask her to dance."

"Jessica? She's with Tyler."

"Not Jessica," Sam said, turning bright red. "Elena. From our bio class."

The papaya hit my tongue—sweet, musky, totally unlike anything I'd ever tasted. It wasn't bad. It was just... new. Different. The kind of thing that made you realize maybe you'd been living too safely.

"You know what?" I said, swallowing. "Go ask her."

"What? No way. Have you SEEN Elena? She's like, goddess-level pretty. I'm just..." Sam gestured at himself, at his bull hat, at his too-big flannel.

I looked at Tyler, still leaning against that railing like he owned the place. I thought about all the times I'd wanted to raise my hand in class but didn't. All the outfit changes because I worried someone would judge. All the papayas I'd never tried because they seemed too weird.

"Sam," I said, grabbing another forkful of papaya, "life's too short to be scared of fruit or girls or whatever. Just do it. Like a bull. Charge."

Sam stared at me. Then at Elena. Then back at me.

"You first. Go tell Tyler you're taking his shift at the sno-cone stand tomorrow so you can come to my party."

My heart dropped. But I'd just eaten papaya for the first time. How much harder could talking to a person be?

"Fine," I said. "But you're asking Elena."

"Deal."

We fist-bumped, two cowards armed with tropical fruit and a ridiculous bull hat, walking toward things that terrified us. The fair lights flickered on around us, and for once, I didn't want to be anywhere else.