Poolside Palm Promise

Maya's palms were sweating against her iPhone case, leaving little moisture circles on the purple silicone. Three notifications lit up her screen: Be there in 10!, This party is gonna be LIT 🔥, and from Kai: hope u can make it.

She'd spent forty-five minutes on her hair—perfecting the beach waves that refused to cooperate, applying coconut-scented products until her curls surrendered into something approximating effortless. But standing at the edge of Chloe's backyard, staring at the inflatable palm tree bobbing in the pool, Maya felt anything but effortless.

The pool deck was already crowded. Popular kids cannonballing off the diving board. Girls she'd known since middle school comparing newly painted toenails. And there he was—Kai, leaning against the fence, his dark hair still wet from an earlier swim, laughing at something Chloe's brother said.

Maya's thumb hovered over the screen. She could still text back. Something had come up. Her mom needed help. Anything.

Then Kai looked up and spotted her, his face lighting up like she was the person he'd been hoping to see all afternoon. He waved her over.

Her stomach did that terrifying flip-flop thing, but she found herself walking toward the pool, toward him, toward all the things she usually avoided.

"You came," Kai said, like it mattered. His hair dripped onto his shoulders.

"Yeah." Maya gripped her iPhone like a lifeline. "I'm not swimming though. I forgot my suit."

"You don't need a suit for this." Kai held out his hand. "Chloe's cousin does palm readings. She said she'd do us."

Maya blinked. "Palm readings? Seriously?"

"It's supposed to be scary accurate." He wiggled his fingers. "Come on. Unless you're scared."

She shouldn't. She should make some excuse, head home, scroll through TikTok until the familiar anxiety faded. But Kai was still holding out his hand, waiting, and his palm had a little scar she'd never noticed before and suddenly she wanted to know how he'd gotten it.

"Fine," Maya said, and placed her phone on a nearby table. "But if she says I'm going to die alone, I'm blaming you."

Kai's grin was worth it.

Later, when the palm reading turned out to be total BS (Maya's lifeline was "tragically short" according to Chloe's sixteen-year-old cousin who was definitely making it up), and they were both laughing so hard that Maya forgot to be self-conscious about her hair or her not-quite-perfect swimsuit body or the fact that she was the only one not in the pool, Kai dared her to jump in with her clothes on.

"I don't even have a change of clothes," she protested.

"Live a little, Maya." His eyes crinkled. "Besides, I'll push you in if you don't jump yourself."

She stared at the pool, at the palm tree inflatable, at Kai waiting beside her, and realized her phone was still sitting on the table, ignored, three unread notifications piling up.

Maya grabbed Kai's hand and pulled them both into the water.