Papaya Protocol

Maya pressed her back against the bathroom door, heart practically running a marathon in her chest. Outside, the bass of Jordan's house party thumped through the floorboards, but in here, she could finally breathe.

Her iPhone buzzed in her hand — another Snapchat from Sasha. Maya ignored it, like she'd ignored the last twelve. Being best friends since kindergarten meant Sasha could read her silence like a text message left on read, but some things were too embarrassing to explain even to your soul sister.

Especially when you'd accidentally agreed to go on a date with your crush's cousin.

Maya turned on the faucet, letting cold water splash over her hands. She needed to get out there before someone came looking, before her overthinking brain convinced her this was actually a spy mission gone wrong instead of just being a normal person at a normal party with normal human interactions.

"You good in there?" A voice called through the door. Not Sasha. Tyler.

"Yeah!" Maya squeaked. She splashed more water on her face, accidentally getting some in her nose. Great. Now she'd emerge looking like a raccoon who'd been crying.

The door opened anyway. Tyler stood there holding a plate with a suspiciously bright orange fruit slice on it. "Sasha said you'd appreciate this."

"What is it?"

"Papaya. She found it in her mom's weird health phase stash and brought it as a joke, but honestly? It's not terrible." He grinned, all crooked teeth and kind eyes. "Also, Jordan wants everyone in the backyard for something."

"What something?"

"No clue. My money's on another failed TikTok attempt." Tyler checked his phone, frowning. "Yo, did you see what Ethan posted?"

Maya's stomach did that familiar flip. "No?"

"Tagged you in that video from the beach last week. With the caption about how you're actually cool once you stop overthinking everything." Tyler looked up, suddenly serious. "He's not wrong, you know."

Maya felt something shift inside her chest, like maybe she'd been running from the wrong thing all along.

"Come on," Tyler said, already walking away. "Bring the papaya. We might need it for survival."

Maya looked in the mirror one more time, water droplets still clinging to her forehead like tiny badges of courage. Then she grabbed the papaya slice and walked out the door, Sasha's texts finally forgotten, her phone finally silent, her heart finally just beating instead of running away.