Sunburned Saturday

Marcus pulled the brim of his grandpa's old trucker hat lower, trying to disappear into the fabric. Pool parties. The worst invention ever, and he was standing in Chloe's backyard wearing cargo shorts and an XXL t-shirt that screamed "I'm not going in."

"Dude, you coming?" Tyler called from the edge of the pool, already shirtless and doing that thing guys do where they Flex™ for no reason.

"Nah, I'm good," Marcus said, but then he caught Chloe watching him from her lawn chair. She waved. His stomach did that uncomfortable flip thing.

He'd never gone swimming without a shirt on. Not since seventh grade when someone made a comment about his back. He'd been hiding under layers ever since, literally and figuratively.

His palm was sweating inside his pocket, gripping his emergency vitamin D gummy like it was some kind of magical confidence pill. His mom had started him on them after he kept getting sick last winter, but somewhere along the way they'd become his weird little ritual before anything scary.

"Marcus!" Chloe's voice cut through his spiral. "I saved you a popsicle!"

She was standing in the shallow end, water up to her waist, not self-conscious at all, palms pressed against her sides like she owned every inch of herself.

Something in his chest shifted.

Marcus pulled off the hat. Then the shirt.

The world didn't explode. No one pointed. Tyler was too busy trying to impress Rachel with a handstand to care about Marcus's back.

He cannonballed in.

When he surfaced, Chloe tossed him a cherry popsicle. "Took you long enough," she said with this tiny smile that made everything worth it.

Marcus floated on his back, staring up at the palm trees swaying against that perfect California blue, thinking about how he'd spent months worried about what people would think if they saw him—when the whole time, no one had been looking at anything but their own insecurities.

Sometimes the scariest things were just the ones you made up in your head. And sometimes a vitamin gummy and a girl with a popsicle were all the push you needed.