Pockets Full of Regret

The July sun beat down on Miller's Pond like it had a personal vendetta against my social life. I stood at the edge, board shorts suddenly feeling way too revealing, clutching my phone like a lifeline.

"You coming in or what?" Maya called from the middle of the pond, treading water with enviable grace. We'd been best friends since kindergarten, but somehow she'd evolved into a mermaid while I remained evolutionarily designed for land.

"Yeah, just, uh, checking something," I lied, staring at my cracked screen like it contained the meaning of existence. Ten people from school were scattered around the water—Jake, whose hair somehow looked better wet, and Priya, who I'd been lowkey crushing on since March.

My pocket buzzed. Mom: "Did you put on sunscreen?" Classic.

"Bro, you're overthinking it," Leo said, appearing beside me with a running cannonball that soaked my shins. "Just jump. The water's sick."

Easy for him to say. Leo had jumped off the high dive last summer and posted it on his story like it was nothing. Meanwhile, I was still processing that one time in sixth grade when I'd done an accidental belly flop and couldn't breathe right for three days.

Priya laughed at something Jake said, throwing her head back, water droplets flying from her hair like diamonds. This was it. The moment. I could either be That Guy Who Stood On The Edge All Summer or I could just... exist.

"Fine," I muttered, handing my phone to Maya's little sister, who'd somehow appeared with suspiciously good timing. "Don't unlock it."

"I know the code," she said innocently.

"Wait WHAT—"

Too late. I jumped.

The shock of cold water hit me like a thousand tiny electric shocks, and for a second, I forgot everything—my awkward arms, the audience, the fact that I hadn't swum in three years. Then I broke the surface, sputtering, pushing wet hair from my eyes.

Maya high-fived me. "Finally! Took you long enough."

Jake nodded. "Solid entry, man. 7/10."

Priya smiled at me, actually smiled, and I felt something shift in my chest that had nothing to do with the cold water. "Took you forever, but you made it."

Later, I'd realize my phone had been in my other pocket the whole time. But watching it dry out on Maya's kitchen counter surrounded by half the grade, eating lukewarm pizza and laughing at Leo's reenactment of my face when I surfaced, I figured some things were worth the sacrifice.

Besides, my lock screen was now a picture Jake had taken: me, mid-air, mouth open in terror, Maya and Priya doubled over laughing beside me. Caption: "Local teen discovers water exists. More at 11."

I changed it to my wallpaper immediately.