Splash Point

The padel court smelled like rubber and summer desperation. My phone buzzed in my pocket — probably the group chat blowing up about where to post-Padel. But I couldn't check. Not when Lucas was stretching against the fence, his muscles doing things that should be illegal at a friendly Saturday meetup.

"You ready to get destroyed, Maya?" He grinned, that perfect annoying grin that made my stomach do actual gymnastics.

"In your dreams, Lucas. I've been practicing." A total lie. I'd been watching TikTok tutorials at 2 AM, which counted.

The game was chaos. Sweat dripped down my back. My iPhone kept sliding out of my sports bra. I kept shoving it back in, paranoid about leaving it in the bag where anyone could steal it. Modern problems.

Then came the water break. Someone knocked over a cooler. Ice cubes scattered across the court like frozen chaos. Lucas slipped, arms flailing, and crashed right into me. We went down in a tangle of limbs and racquet.

My phone flew out of my pocket and splashed into a puddle.

"Oh SHOOT," I said. Or something like that. Maybe I used actual swear words. My brain had short-circuited.

Lucas was already reaching for it, wiping it on his shirt like it was made of gold. "Sorry, I'm so sorry—"

"It's fine, it's fine." My voice came out weirdly high. I grabbed the phone. The screen flickered ominously.

He wouldn't let go of my hand. Just held it there in the middle of the court, water seeping into my socks, everyone staring. "Maya, I—"

"Your phone!" Someone shouted from the sidelines.

But Lucas didn't let go. He looked at me with those stupid perfect eyes and said, "Forget the phone for a second. Can I ask you something?"

My heart did something that definitely required medical attention. "What?"

"Do you want to grab food after this? Just us?"

The water from my hair dripped onto my nose. My phone screen went black in my other hand. And I realized I didn't care. Not even a little bit.

"Yes," I said. "Yes, absolutely."

Later, when my mom asked why my phone was waterlogged and I was late for dinner, I just shrugged. Sometimes things break so better things can begin.