Papaya Summer Secrets

The iPhone buzzed in Maya's pocket like an angry hornet. Another Instagram story view – probably from someone literally at this party. She tugged her dad's oversized baseball hat lower, grateful it covered the unfortunate box dye situation she was absolutely NOT talking about tonight.

"Maya! Check this out!" Sophie called from the kitchen. "My mom got, like, EXOTIC fruit."

The kitchen counter looked like a fruit rainbow: mangoes, starfruit, and something orange and alien-looking that Maya had never seen in her suburban life.

"It's a papaya," said Liam, THE Liam, who Maya had been lowkey crushing on since seventh grade health class. He was wearing that stupid beanie even though it was July, because of course he was. "My abuela makes me eat it. Supposed to be, like, good for your skin or something."

Sophie started hacking at the papaya with a knife that was definitely too large for the job. "Whatever, we're being ADVENTUROUS tonight."

Then the cat – Sophie's obese orange tabby, Garfield – launched himself onto the counter with the athleticism of a drunk giraffe. Straight toward the papaya.

"GARFIELD, NO!" three people screamed simultaneously.

The cat knocked the papaya sideways. It rolled off the counter, bounced off Liam's chest – *splat* – orange pulp EVERYWHERE. All over his white vintage tee. All over the floor.

And somehow Maya's phone had recorded the ENTIRE thing. The slow-mo video was already waiting in her camera roll, caption writing itself: *when the papaya chooses violence*.

Liam stood there dripping fruit juice like a defeated prom king, then started cracking up. "Okay, that was honestly iconic."

"Tragic," Maya said, but she was smiling so hard her face hurt. "But like, in a memorable way?"

"Definitely memorable." He wiped papaya from his chin. "Hey, you got that on video, right?"

She pulled out her phone, hat finally pushed back. "Oh, it's DEFINITELY going viral."

And for the first time all night, Maya forgot to be self-conscious. Sometimes the most embarrassing moments made the best stories – and sometimes papaya chaos was exactly what you needed to finally talk to your crush. Even if he was currently covered in fruit pulp.

"Want help cleaning that up?" she asked.

"If you promise not to TikTok it," he grinned.

"No promises."