Papaya Sunset Secrets

The papaya gum lost its flavor three hours ago, but Maya kept chewing anyway. It was better than thinking about how everyone at the pool party seemed to belong here except her.

She'd been spying on Bryce's Instagram stories all week—watching him live his best life with his new friends, his new vibe, his new everything. They used to be inseparable, back when they'd spend whole summers swimming at the community pool until their fingers turned into raisins. Now she was just another observer watching from behind her phone screen.

"Yo, you gonna actually swim or just chill in the shallow end?" Bryce called out. He was standing by the orange inflatable raft, surrounded by people whose names she kept forgetting.

Maya's stomach did that thing where it felt simultaneously hollow and too full. "Maybe later," she managed, treading water like her life depended on it.

The real reason she'd come—why she'd spent forty minutes perfecting her hair and fifteen psyching herself up in her car—was sitting two lounge chairs away. Riley. The girl who'd been in Maya's homeroom since seventh grade, who always wore that vintage orange hoodie, who Maya had been lowkey crushing on since they got paired for that bio project in January.

Riley caught Maya's eye and smiled. Not the polite smile she gave everyone, but the real one. The one that made Maya's chest feel like it was filling with sunlight.

"Nice gum," Riley said, sliding into the pool beside her. "What flavor is it?"

"Papaya," Maya said, surprised she could still speak. "Weird, right? My mom bought it by accident."

"Actually kind of perfect though." Riley splashed water toward Maya's shoulder. "Like, who even eats papaya? It's so random it's cool."

And just like that, Maya wasn't spying anymore. She wasn't watching from the outside. She was here, in the water, talking to the girl she'd been secretly watching all semester, while papaya gum kept losing its battle against reality.

"Want to go swimming in the deep end with me?" Riley asked. "The shallow end's kinda basic anyway."

Maya finally spit out her gum. "Yeah," she said, and followed her into the deep blue.