Poolside Revelation

The chlorine stung my eyes, but I wouldn't surface. Not yet. I was playing a dangerous game, pretending to be just another floatie in Maya's backyard pool, when really I was spying on the conversation happening three feet away on the patio.

"So," Jasmine's voice carried over the water, "are you gonna tell him, or what?"

My heart did this weird flutter thing. I wasn't supposed to hear this. But also, I totally was.

Maya sighed. I could picture her exactly — tucking that stray piece of hair behind her ear, palm pressed against her forehead like she does when she's overwhelmed. "I don't know, Jas. What if it makes everything weird? We've been friends since seventh grade."

"Exactly. Friends become couples all the time. It's, like, a whole thing." Jasmine paused. "Wait, is that HIM?"

Lightning couldn't have struck me faster. I swam to the edge and pulled myself up, water streaming down my face, trying to play it cool. Definitely failing.

"Hey," I said, smooth as gravel. "What's up?"

Maya's face turned approximately the shade of the spinach stuck in her braces from lunch, and I realized two things simultaneously: one, she hadn't noticed the spinach yet, and two, this was possibly the most mortifying moment of my life.

"You have—" I started, but she cut me off.

"Spinach. I know. Kill me now."

I couldn't help it. I laughed. Not mean laughing, but real laughing. Because somehow this perfect girl with the perfect grades and perfect hair had green stuff in her teeth and was talking about liking some guy while that same guy was pretending to drown in her pool.

"It's not funny," she groaned, covering her mouth with her hand.

"It kinda is," I said, swimming to the steps. "Also, for what it's worth? I think you should tell him. Like, 100%."

Maya looked at me then, really looked at me, and something shifted. The air between us changed, charged with understanding I'd been waiting for since that first day of seventh grade science when she'd let me borrow her pen and never asked for it back.

"Yeah?" she said softly.

"Yeah," I said back. "I'm pretty sure he feels the same way."