Poolside Surveillance

I felt like a total creep, lurking behind the fake palm tree at Tyler's pool party. But after my best friend since kindergarten blocked me on Insta and started sitting with the popular kids at lunch, desperate times called for desperate measures. I wasn't proud of my amateur spy routine, but loyalty isn't dead, it's just complicated.

Then I saw it—Maddie's hair was orange. Not cute sunset orange, but straight-up radioactive Cheeto orange, like she'd dipped her head in a bucket of caution tape. My stomach did that weird flutter thing. She'd always wanted to dye it, but her mom said absolutely not. Something must have changed.

Tyler cannonballed into the water, sending a wave sloshing over the concrete. Maddie scrambled backward, laughing, hair plastering to her face in neon streaks. That's when I noticed her phone on the patio table, lit up with my texts.

Hundreds of them.

All unanswered.

My cheeks burned hotter than her hair. She hadn't blocked me because she outgrew our friendship. She'd ghosted me because I wouldn't stop messaging her about drama she literally did not care about anymore.

I turned to leave, but Maddie spotted me. For a second, I thought she'd look away. Instead, she waved me over with this tiny, genuine smile.

"Your hair," I said, dumbfounded. "It's..."

"A disaster?" She laughed. "My mom finally said whatever, do what you want. Can you believe that?"

I splashed into the water beside her. The cool shocked my skin but felt honest.

"You should have told me you wanted to do this," I said. "I would've helped."

"I know," she said, and something in her voice softened. "I'm sorry I didn't. I think I just needed to do something on my own for once. Figure out who I am without you finishing my sentences."

"That's fair," I admitted. "But next time? Don't leave me hanging. I thought you hated me."

She pushed me into the deep end. I came up sputtering, but she was grinning, that genuine one that crinkled her eyes.

"Never," she said. "You're stuck with me, orange hair and all."