Summer Storm Hearts

Leo had been mentally prepping for Maya's pool party for exactly three weeks. Seven days of practicing his serve on the padel court, fourteen days of doing ab crunches, and twenty-one days of convincing himself he wasn't totally mid.

"Yo, you good?" Maya asked, sliding up beside him at the snack table. She was wearing this mismatched bikini top situation that shouldn't have worked but absolutely did.

"Yeah, totally," Leo lied. He was absolutely not good. His heart was doing something unhinged, and he was hyper-aware of his pale chest reflected in the sliding glass door.

The in-ground pool glittered behind her, blue and perfect. Everyone else was already swimming—Jake doing canonballs, Sierra and her friends gossiping on the shallow end steps. Too late to join without making it weird.

"My mom made fruit salad," Maya said, gesturing to a bowl. "Try the papaya."

Leo spooned some onto his plate. He took a bite, choked, and barely avoided spitting it out everywhere. "What is—"

"Maya, no!" Her friend Chen yelled from across the patio. "You forgot to warn him about the lime!"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Maya said, dying of laughter. "It's a thing where it makes everything taste weird if you don't expect it. You look like you just ate soap."

Leo's face burned. He'd lasted seventeen minutes before completely embarrassing himself. New record.

Then the sky opened up.

A crack of lightning split the sky like something from a disaster movie, and rain came down in sheets. Everyone screamed and scrambled toward the covered porch. Leo got separated in the chaos, stuck under the edge of the roof as thunder rattled his chest.

"Nice weather we're having," someone said.

He turned and it was Maya, somehow dry and holding two sodas. She was close. Too close. His brain short-circuited.

"So," she said, cracking one open. "You gonna tell me why you've been staring at me all summer, or am I supposed to keep guessing?"

Leo's stomach dropped. "I—what?"

"I'm not blind, Leo." She grinned, all teeth and mischief. "You're cute when you're nervous, though."

Outside, another lightning flash turned the whole yard strobe-light bright. The rain drummed against the roof, drowning out everything else. Leo took a breath.

"Well," he managed. "You're the reason I joined padel club. So. There's that."

Maya's eyes widened. Then she actually laughed, for real, bright and surprised. "You took up Padel for me? That is so—"

"Pathetic? I know."

"—honestly kind of adorable," she finished. "But also kind of dumb. I'm terrible at sports."

The bull head mounted above the patio door seemed to be judging him. Whatever. He'd take it.

"Well," Leo said, finding something like courage. "Want to hang out inside until the storm passes? We could not-eat more soap fruit together."

Maya smiled, and Leo felt the whole world shift, just a little. "Deal."