The Baseball Cable Drop

Marcus stood at the edge of Miller's Pond, clutching the fraying **baseball** glove his dad had given him three summers ago—back when their weekend catches meant something. Now the leather was cracked, and so was everything else.

"You're not actually gonna jump, are you?" Kara asked, floating on her back in the murky **water**. Her Converse were still on, because that's how she rolled. Literally rolled, off the dock last summer, sneakers and all, and made it look cool.

Marcus hesitated. The town had cut the pond's **cable** line last year when some idiot tried to tightrope walk across the inlet on a wire and nearly electrocuted himself. Now the thick black cord lay coiled like a dead snake near the shore, a reminder of what happened when you tried too hard.

"I don't know," Marcus admitted. "Maybe."

"You're overthinking it." Kara paddled closer, water dripping from her messy bun. "Just jump.rip the bandaid, you know?"

"That's the problem." Marcus kicked at a pebble. "Jake was supposed to be here. We were gonna do it together. For his channel."

Kara snorted. "Your **friend** bailed to chase clout with the seniors again? Shocker."

"He's not just—"

"Marcus." She treaded water now, dead serious. "Jake's ghosting your group chat, blowing off plans, and suddenly he's too cool for pond jumps but not for doing whatever the seniors want. That's not friendship. That's being a fan." She paused. "And you're still holding his glove."

Marcus looked down at the worn leather in his hand. Jake had given it to him sophomore year when Marcus couldn't afford his own. "He said he'd come back for it."

"The Jake you knew would've jumped already." Kara's voice softened. "This Jake? He's different now. And you're still waiting for him to be the person he was."

Marcus stared at the dark **water**. At the coiled **cable** on shore. At the **baseball** field beyond the trees where his dad used to watch him play, back before the divorce and the silence and everything changed.

He threw the glove onto the grass.

"What are you—"

Marcus jumped.

The shock of cold hit him like a physical blow. Water rushed up his nose, filled his ears, surrounded him with that instant panic that gave way to something else—something freeing. He broke the surface gasping, heart pounding, alive.

Kara was grinning. "Took you long enough."

Marcus treaded water, shaky breath slowing down. "I left the glove."

"Yeah, I saw. What's Jake gonna say?" she teased.

Marcus thought about it, treading cold **water** under a sky turning pink with sunset. "Honestly?" He smirked. "He can get his own."