Poolside Panic

The **pool** glowed like a radioactive blue jello cup, exactly the kind of TikTok-vibes party that Maya's anxiety had nightmares about. She stood at the edge of the deck in her oversized t-shirt, heart doing jumping jacks against her ribs, while everyone else splashed like they'd been born with gills.

"You coming in or what?" Tyler called from the deep end, shaking **water** from his hair like a golden retriever. Of course Tyler looked effortless. Tyler looked effortless existing.

Maya's brain provided the hit playlist of her insecurities on loop. You're awkward. Your laugh sounds like a dying seal. That time in seventh grade when you faceplanted in gym while **running** laps? Everyone still remembers.

She was halfway to bailing — already crafting the elaborate lie about her mom needing her at home (classic, but effective) — when she noticed the new guy perched on the pool edge, arms crossed. Something was inked across his shoulder: a tiny **bear**, mid-roar.

"Nice ink," she found herself saying, because apparently her mouth had decided to participate in social interaction without consulting her brain.

He glanced up, surprised. "Thanks. My brother's a tattoo artist. Said if I could handle the pain, I could pick whatever." He grinned, and Maya noticed how his eyes crinkled. "I might have underestimated needle-on-collarbone agony, though."

"I feel like that's life, though," she said before she could overthink it. "Things that seem cool versus the pain of actually doing them. Like this party. I've been psyching myself out for literal days."

"Same," he said, gesturing at the water. "Been standing here twenty minutes pretending to check messages."

Maya laughed, and this time it didn't sound like a dying seal. "Okay, stupid question, but do you want to... not jump in separately and awkwardly?"

"I was hoping you'd ask," he said, standing up. "On three?"

They jumped together, surfacing sputtering while someone shouted "FINALLY" from across the pool. And somewhere between the shock of cold water and the way the new guy — Leo, she learned his name was Leo — grinned at her through dripping hair, Maya realized something: the scariest moments weren't the ones you avoided. They were the ones you survived, then couldn't stop thinking about later.

"Worth it?" Leo asked.

"Yeah," she said, and meant it. "Actually, yeah."