Poolside Lightning

The **baseball** game had gone into extra innings, which meant I was already two hours late to Tyler's party. My curls were frizzing in the July humidity, and I'd spent twenty minutes in the bathroom trying to salvage my **hair** before giving up and throwing it into a messy bun. Whatever. It was just a party.

When I finally arrived, the backyard was already packed. The **pool** glowed blue from underwater lights, and people I'd known since middle school were clustered in groups that somehow felt impossible to penetrate. I hovered near the snack table, clutching my **iphone** like a lifeline, refreshing Instagram even though nothing new had posted in three minutes.

"You made it!" Maya materialized beside me, handing me a soda. "You're overthinking again. I can literally see it."

"Am not," I said, but she gave me that look.

Then everything changed. A crack of **lightning** split the sky—close enough that the whole backyard went white, and the thunder shook the ground beneath our flip-flops. The pool lights flickered and died. Someone screamed, but it was that excited kind, the scared-but-loving-it scream that meant this was suddenly the most epic party of the summer.

"Everyone inside! NOW!" Tyler's mom shouted from the back door.

We all scrambled, grabbing towels and phones and whatever else we could carry. In the chaos, someone—probably Jason, honestly—accidently knocked me toward the pool. I would've gone in fully clothed if Jordan hadn't grabbed my arm at the last second, pulling me back against his chest as the storm really opened up.

"You good?" he asked, and his voice was deeper than I remembered, or maybe that was just the thunder.

We were both soaked anyway from the downpour, my hair plastered to my face, probably looking ridiculous. But when Jordan started laughing—really laughing, head thrown back like this was the best thing that had ever happened—I found myself laughing too. The social groups we'd all carefully cultivated dissolved. The pool was abandoned. The iphone stayed in my pocket.

Sometimes the best moments aren't the ones you plan. They're the ones that crack through everything you're trying so hard to be, and leave you standing in the rain, grinning like an idiot, finally just... being.