Poolside Protocol

Maya smoothed her snapback, the brim hiding the panic in her eyes. This hat was her armor — without it, she felt naked. The house party raged behind her, bass thumping against the sliding glass doors that led to the pool. Lights flickered across the water, turning the backyard into an alien landscape.

"You coming in or what?" Jordan called from the pool's edge, dripping wet. His friends giggled. Maya's stomach did that awful twisty thing it always did when people noticed her.

She was about to bail when a calico cat darted between her legs, nearly tripping her. The cat — some stray that had been crashing the neighborhood all summer — paused, gave her this judgmental stare, then bolted toward the guest house.

"Weird ass cat," Jordan laughed.

Maya's phone buzzed. Her group chat was blowing up: *WHERE R U???* *KEVIN IS ASKING ABOUT U.* *DON'T BE LAME.*

Kevin. The reason she'd even come. The reason she'd spent two hours picking this outfit, three hours overthinking her hair. And now she was hiding by the patio furniture like a total loser.

"You okay?" It was Kevin. Standing there in ridiculous bear swim trunks, looking genuinely concerned. Which was somehow worse than if he'd been joking.

"Yeah," Maya said, too fast. "Just... thinking."

"About jumping in?" Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Or about how Jordan's being a dick?"

Maya actually laughed. "Both?"

"The water's actually not bad once you're in." He held out a hand. "Or we can just sit here and be the two people not swimming. No pressure."

The cat returned, walking along the pool edge like it owned the place. Jordan's friends went silent. The cat stopped, dipped a paw in the water, and yanked it back like it'd been burned.

"Even the cat's not feeling it," Kevin said.

Maya looked at her hat, then at Kevin's bear trunks, then at the water reflecting the party lights. She could keep hiding. Or she could dive in.

She took off the hat. Shook out her hair.

"Screw it," she said, and grabbed Kevin's hand.

The splash was everything.