The Art of Missing Everything

The orange sun dipped behind the clubhouse as I adjusted my hat—backward, because that's how Leo wore his, and I was still in that phase where I thought copying someone's style might make me understand them. Padel. Who even calls their sport padel? It sounded like something your grandma would knit, not something that required actual coordination.

"You're overthinking it," Mia said, reading my palm like she'd learned from a YouTube tutorial at 2 AM. "Your lifeline's short. That means you need to hurry up and ask him."

My palms were sweating. I'd been crushing on Leo since summer league baseball when he'd let me borrow his glove because I'd forgotten mine. Now here we were, at his country club's weird European sport court, and I was about to make a complete fool of myself.

"It's just like tennis," Leo called from across the court, hitting the ball with impossible ease. "But cooler."

"Nothing's cooler than baseball," I muttered, though loud enough that he might've heard. The orange ball came sailing toward me, and I missed spectacularly, racket whiffing through air like I was fighting invisible ghosts.

Leo laughed. Not mean laughter. The kind that made his eyes crinkle.

Mia facepalmed so hard I actually heard it. "Dude, you had ONE job. Flirt with him. Don't embarrass yourself—well, more than necessary."

But Leo jogged over, his hat now forward, messing up his perfect hair. "Here's the thing about padel," he said, standing way closer than necessary. "Nobody's good at first. You want me to teach you?"

The orange ball sat between us like a tiny planet. My palms stopped sweating. Sometimes the worst moments—missing everything, looking ridiculous—are exactly how you get exactly what you want.

"Yeah," I said, flipping my hat backward again. "Teach me."

Mia whispered something that sounded suspiciously like "FINALLY" as the sun finally disappeared, leaving us in that perfect blue hour where anything feels possible, especially when you're fifteen and someone cute wants to teach you a sport with a ridiculous name.