Poolside Secrets

Maya's palms were literally sweating as she stared at her phone screen. Three weeks into summer and she'd become a total low-key spy on Jordan's Instagram. Every pool pic. Every sunset story. Every single thirst trap he'd posted since freshman year.

"You're being creepy," her best friend Chloe said, popping open a soda. "Just talk to him at the party tonight."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who's been undercover stalking him since June."

The pool party was already lit when they arrived—music thumping, people doing cannonballs off the diving board, the whole squad from school looking way more confident than Maya felt. She spotted Jordan immediately, laughing with his friends near the deep end.

She grabbed a spot on a lounge chair, phone in hand, ready to do her usual spy routine—watching from a distance, gathering intel, never making a move. But then her phone died. No warning. Just black screen, mid-scroll through Jordan's story from yesterday.

Of course. The ONE time she forgot her charging cable.

"You okay?"

Maya jumped. Jordan was standing there, water dripping from his hair, his swim trunks slightly too big in that way that made her stomach do actual flips. Up close, his eyes were golden-brown and he had a tiny scar through his eyebrow.

"Yeah, my phone died," she said, instantly regretting how uncool that sounded.

"That's actually tragic," he said, grinning. "I'm Jordan, by the way."

"Maya."

"Cool. Wanna play chicken fights? My partner bailed on me."

Before she could overthink it, she was in the pool, sitting on Jordan's shoulders while he laughed at her terrible strategy. Water splashed everywhere. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this alive, this present, this NOT trapped in her head.

Later, when they were sitting on the pool edge with their feet in the water, he asked about her summer. And she told him everything—about feeling invisible last year, about wanting to reinvent herself, about how scared she was of high school starting in September.

"Same, though," Jordan said, surprising her. "Everyone thinks I'm chill, but I'm literally freaking out about tryouts next week."

They sat there while the sky turned pink, two spies who'd finally dropped their cover. And when her palm brushed against his while reaching for a towel, neither of them pulled away.