Signal Lost at the Palm

The pool lights glowed radioactive blue, turning everyone into underwater ghosts. Maya clutched her iPhone like a lifeline, her thumb hovering over Jake's text message. Are you coming? It had been sitting there for seventeen minutes, and she'd spent every one of them overthinking.

Pool parties were supposed to be effortless. You showed up, you looked cute, you pretended you weren't freezing when you got out of the water. But Maya was wearing a two-piece for the first time since seventh grade, and she felt like she was advertising her insecurities to everyone who looked at her.

The giant palm tree towered above her, its fronds silhouetted against the LA sky like skeletal fingers. This was supposed to be summer's peak—the kind of night that would become core-core memories, the stuff of nostalgic Instagram posts months from now. Instead, she was stuck spiraling in her bathroom.

Her bedroom door swung open. Chloe, her best friend since they'd bonded over shared locker misfortune freshman year, leaned against the doorframe, already swimsuit-ready and effortlessly perfect.

"You're spiraling," Chloe said. "I can literally see it."

Maya groaned and dropped onto her bed. "Is it weird that I'm nervous? It's just Jake's house. I've known him since, like, elementary school."

"It's different now." Chloe sat beside her. "He's not Jake-from-fourth-grade anymore. He's Jake who sits behind you in bio and makes you laugh so hard you almost dissected a frog by accident."

That had been mortifying. Jake had found it hilarious.

"He's just being nice," Maya said. "He's nice to everyone."

"He doesn't text everyone at midnight," Chloe pointed out. "And he definitely didn't invite everyone to sit with his friends at lunch yesterday."

Maya's heart did that stupid flippy thing. But she couldn't let herself believe it. Believing led to hoping, and hoping led to the kind of public humiliation they'd made coming-of-age movies about.

The phone buzzed again. Everyone's asking about you. This pool isn't gonna jump in itself.

The palm tree's leaves rustled, and somewhere distant, a neighbor's bass thumped.

Maya took a breath. "Okay. But if I drown socially, you're my lookout."

Chloe grinned. "Always. Also, your butt looks great in that swimsuit. Not weird. Just facts."

"Chloe!"

"What! We're both thinking it!" She grabbed Maya's hand. "Now come on. The palm. The pool. The potentially life-changing moment with Jake. Let's go."