Poolside Papaya Courage

The pool glowed that artificial blue that only exists at TJ's parties, the kind where everyone's pretending to be someone they're not. Maya smoothed her cutoff shorts and checked her phone again. No text from Kai.

"You gonna stand there all night or actually swim?" Zara called, splashing water toward her.

"Maybe," Maya said, but her voice cracked. She wasn't there for the pool.

She was there for the papaya.

Okay, that sounded weird even in her head. But Kai had mentioned in biology that he'd never tried it, how he wanted to be someone who ate exotic fruits instead of the same safe stuff every day. Someone who took risks. So Maya had spent twenty dollars she didn't have on this papaya, cut it into suspicious-looking cubes, and carried it across town like it contraband.

"Is that... papaya?" Zara made a face. "That looks gross."

"It's sophisticated," Maya said, though she'd never actually tried it herself. The cubes sat in their container, judging her.

Then Kai pushed through the gate, hair wet, shirt nowhere to be found. Maya's stomach did that thing where it forgot how to be an organ.

"Who's got papaya?" His face lit up. "Maya?"

"I heard you wanted to try it," she managed, handing over the container like it was a bomb. Their fingers brushed and her entire nervous system short-circuited.

"You remembered," Kai said, and something in his voice made Maya feel like maybe she wasn't invisible after all.

He popped a cube in his mouth, made a face, then started laughing. "It tastes like... nothing I can describe. But I like it. You want some?"

"Nah, I'll bear witness," Maya said, then immediately wanted to die. BEAR witness? Who said that?

But Kai just grinned, papaya juice on his chin. "Bear witness to my bravery?"

"Something like that."

"You're awesome, Maya," he said, and for the first time all night, she actually believed it.

The papaya was gross. Kai was still talking to her. And somehow, standing poolside with wet cutoffs and papaya breath, Maya felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.