Summer Signal Static

The cable van smelled like stale coffee and teenage desperation. My first real job, installing internet for people who'd probably just complain about slow speeds anyway. Marcus, my supervisor, spent more time vaping in the parking lot than actually supervising, which meant I spent half the day figuring out coaxial connections by myself.

'You're not gonna believe this,' Jenna said when she picked me up, bouncing in the driver's seat of her mom's Corolla. 'Alex followed me into the smoothie place. Like, actually followed me.' She flipped her hair and I tried to look chill instead of territorial, even though my stomach did that stupid thing it always did when she talked about other guys.

'Classic Alex behavior,' I said, staring out the window. 'Did you buy the smoothie or just stand there being smoothie-girl adjacent?'

She laughed, hitting my arm. 'Shut up. At least I'm not spending all day climbing into random people's attics looking for cable connections.'

'That's literally my job, Jen.'

'Exactly.' She turned up the radio. 'We're going swimming. Tank forgot his goldfish at college and his mom wants us to come over and, like, help or whatever. Then we're hitting the pool.'

Tank's abandoned goldfish, now named Carl by his mom, was the size of a dinner plate and stared at me with what I felt was unnecessary judgment. 'This fish has survived three semesters of neglect,' Tank said, sprinkling flakes into the bowl. 'He's basically immortal. Like my GPA.'

'Carl out here living his best life,' Jenna said, poking the glass. 'Meanwhile, we're all running around like idiots trying to figure out what we're doing with our lives.'

That hit harder than I wanted to admit. I was seventeen, working a dead-end summer job, watching my best friend fall for someone who wasn't me, and feeling like I was constantly just treading water while everyone else was actually swimming somewhere.

Later, at the pool, Jenna dove in with this perfect form she'd perfected after years of competitive swimming. I stood at the edge, watching underwater as her hair fanned out like dark smoke, thinking about how some people just moved through life like they knew exactly where they were going.

'You coming in?' she called, slicking her hair back. Water droplets clung to her shoulders like diamonds.

I jumped. The water swallowed me, cool and sudden. For a second, I was weightless, suspended between surface and bottom, not running toward anything or away from anything—just existing. I surfaced, gasping, and she was already grinning at me.

'You look like a drowned cable guy,' she said.

'That's literally what I am.'

She splashed me. 'You're also my best friend. Also, you're definitely getting promoted after the Carl incident.'

'What Carl incident?'

'Exactly.' She swam backward, leaving little ripples. 'Some things just work out, stupid.'