Poolside Electric

The chlorine stung Marcus's eyes as he hovered at the deep end, fingers gripping the pool ladder like a lifeline. Everyone else was either shrieking through chicken fights or showing off their cannonball form, while he was still calculating the social risk of actually getting in the water.

"Yo Marcus, you coming in or what?" Tyler called from the diving board, doing that thing where he acted like Marcus wasn't basically invisible at school. "We need a fourth for baseball in the shallow end."

Baseball. In a pool. Because apparently regular sports weren't chaotic enough for Tyler's birthday bash. Marcus's stomach did that familiar lurchy thing whenever attention landed on him unexpected.

"Yeah, sure," he managed, hating how his voice cracked. He slid into the water and immediately felt that dumb electric thrum—like lightning skimming under his skin—when he noticed Brianna floating nearby with her friends. She was laughing at something Jenna said, her hair slicked back, that one perfect curl still springing loose at her temple.

Game on. Marcus paddled over, trying to look casual instead of desperate. Tyler lobbed a beach ball that was absolutely not a baseball but whatever, and Marcus made this dramatic diving catch that was honestly 90% luck and 10% flailing limbs. Everyone erupted.

"What was that?" Brianna asked, grinning. "Are you secretly athletic?"

"Nah, just really motivated by free pizza," he shot back, and she actually laughed. Not the polite fake kind either.

Then Tyler's little sister Emma came racing over from the gift table, clutching a plastic bag. "Tyler, Tyler, look what I won!" She thrust it at him—a goldfish in a bag from the carnival booths set up near the patio. "His name is Lightning."

"That's literally a regular goldfish," Tyler said, but he was smiling. "Whatever, Lightning's chill."

Emma insisted Lightning needed to experience swimming too, because she was seven and that made sense to her somehow. So there they all were—teenagers who were supposed to be too cool for everything, huddled around a bagged fish in a pool, debating fish safety like it was the most important thing in the world.

Marcus caught Brianna's eye. She rolled her eyes, but like, fondly?

"You think Lightning knows he's living his best life right now?" she asked quietly.

"Honestly?" Marcus considered it. "Probably thinks he's in an infinite ocean. We should all be so lucky."

"Wow, that was unexpectedly deep for someone who just did a full belly flop catching a beach ball."

Marcus shrugged, water dripping from his hair. "I've been told I have layers."

Brianna laughed—really laughed—and for the first time all afternoon, Marcus didn't feel like the awkward kid hovering at the edge of everything. The pool lights flickered on as dusk settled, making the water glow gold and blue. Maybe the goldfish had the right idea. Sometimes you just had to dive into the infinite ocean and see what happened.