Poolside Papaya Protocol

The neighborhood pool was basically social headquarters for incoming freshmen. If you weren't there, you didn't exist. That's why I was currently hyperventilating behind a lounge chair, spying on Jessica Torres and her squad through a gap in the hedge.

I'd been crushing on Jessica since seventh period algebra, where she sat two rows ahead and somehow made solving for x look like an art form. Now it was July and she was at the pool every single day, living her best life in that oversized Hawaiian shirt, while I was over here acting like a total creep instead of just... talking to her.

My cat, Mochi, was judging me hard from her carrier at my feet. I'd only brought her because my parents were out and refused to leave her alone again after she'd somehow opened the fridge and eaten an entire rotisserie chicken. Now she was mewing like I was torturing her, which, fair.

The plan had been solid: casual recon, maybe eventually work up the courage to say hey, no big deal. But that was before Tyler showed up. Tyler, who'd held hands with Jessica at the spring dance. Tyler, whose basketball shorts hung at exactly the right length. Tyler, who was currently slicing open a papaya like some kind of tropical fruit wizard and handing pieces to Jessica.

Who even brings papaya to a public pool? Who slices it open with a Swiss Army knife like they're starring in a survival show? The absolute audacity.

Mochi chose that moment to escape, bursting from her carrier like a fuzzy orange rocket. She bolted straight toward the papaya situation, meowing her head off. I scrambled after her, tripping over my own flip-flops, and face-planted directly onto the concrete.

Pool deck acoustics are unforgiving. Everyone turned. Jessica. Tyler. Their entire friend group. My face was burning hot enough to toast marshmallows.

"Is that... your cat?" Jessica asked. She was looking at me, actually looking at me, with these genuinely amused eyes.

"Her name is Mochi," I said, scooping her up. "She really likes papaya."

"No way," said Jessica, and then she was laughing, not at me but with me, and she offered me a piece of the fruit. "Tyler brought, like, three. You want?"

"Yeah," I said, and it wasn't smooth and I was still on the ground holding a cat, but Jessica smiled like she'd actually noticed me for the first time ever.

Sometimes being embarrassed is just the universe forcing you to get out of your own head. I took the papaya. It was sweet and weird and absolutely delicious. Mochi thought so too.