Spy Games at the Pool Party

I'm basically a professional spy at this point. Four years of high school will teach you things CIA training never could. Like how to navigate Tyler's raging pool party without making eye contact with anyone, while simultaneously looking like I'm having the time of my life.

The shallow end's packed with juniors trying way too hard. I drift toward the deep end like I'm on a mission, clutching my red Solo cup like it's a state secret. My best friend Maya's already abandoned me for the volleyball game, leaving me to handle Operation: Don't Look Awkward Alone.

Then I see him.

Liam's floating on his back in the middle of the pool, water rippling around his chest like he's some kind of summer god. We've been in bio together since September, and I've successfully said approximately twelve words to him. All of them were " excuse me" or "here's the borrowed pencil."

I'm mid-stealthy retreat when Tyler's cousin from college — total bear of a guy, literally the size of a small car — decides to cannonball into the deep end. The splash could've filled a small aquarium.

Liam gets washed toward the edge, right where I'm standing.

"You surviving?" he asks, flipping his wet hair back like this is a movie and not real life.

"Just barely," I say, feeling like a zombie who forgot how to human. "I'm not really a party person. More of a observe-from-the-sidelines person."

He laughs, and it's not mean. "Same. I only came because Tyler said that if I didn't, he'd tell everyone I still sleep with a stuffed bear from when I was seven."

"No way," I say, and just like that, we're talking. Really talking. Not just exchanging words, but having an actual conversation.

Later, when Tyler starts telling some bull story about how he almost got recruited for college football, Liam catches my eye from across the pool and smirks. We share a moment of collective secondhand embarrassment, and I realize something kind of huge:

I don't have to be a spy anymore. I can just be here.

Maya finds me an hour later, pruned from staying in the pool so long. "You've been talking to Liam for, like, two hours," she says, grinning like she knows something I don't. "What's the mission status, agent?"

"Mission accomplished," I say, and for the first time all night, I don't feel like I'm pretending at all.