The Bear in the iPhone

Maya gripped her iPhone so hard her knuckles turned white. Party. Jake's house. Pool.

The text from Jake glowed on her screen: a bear emoji. Just a bear. Their thing.

"You coming?" it said underneath.

She stood outside his gate, heart doing that thing where it forgets how to rhythm correctly. Inside, she could hear splashing and that specific teenage party sound of overlapping laughter.

Her hat. She adjusted the brim, pulling it lower. The hat was her armor. She'd gotten terrible bangs two days ago, and the hat covered them. Also the breakout along her hairline.

"Maya!" Jake was at the gate, shirtless, dripping pool water. "You made it."

"I, uh -" She gestured vaguely at herself. "The hat."

Jake laughed. "Dude, everyone looks like a wet raccoon at pool parties. Come inside."

She stepped through the gate. Floaties shaped like pizza slices. Girls in bikinis who looked like they'd never had a pimple. Guys doing cannonballs that displaced half the pool's water.

"This is insane," she muttered.

Jake handed her a drink. "Papaya smoothie. Tropical vibes."

She took a sip. Weird. Sweet but weird. "It's..."

"I hate it too," he whispered. "Been spitting it in the bushes when my mom's not looking."

Maya smiled. A real one.

Her iPhone buzzed. Instagram notification. Someone posting something. The endless scroll of everyone's perfect life. Meanwhile she was hiding under a hat because she'd given herself bangs on a Tuesday night.

She looked at the pool. Water glittering under string lights.

"You okay?" Jake asked.

"My bangs. They're a disaster."

He tilted his head. "Can't see them. Hat."

"Exactly."

"Maya." His voice got soft. "You know the bear emoji?"

She nodded. Their inside joke from biology, when they'd watched a bear fail at catching fish for twenty minutes, and Jake had whispered, "Same," and they'd cracked up in the middle of class.

"You're the bear," he said. "In the best way. Just trying your best. That's all anyone's doing."

She looked at him. Damp hair, kind eyes, that one freckle on his nose she'd memorized.

"So you're saying I should -"

"I'm saying take off the hat." He smiled. "And jump in the pool."

Maya pulled off the hat.

Her bangs were, objectively, a mess. Frizzy and uneven.

Jake didn't flinch.

"See?" he said. "You look like Maya. That's the good one."

Her iPhone buzzed again. Whatever.

"Race you to the deep end," she said.

"You're on."

She jumped in.

Water everywhere. Cool and shocking. Perfect.

When she surfaced, Jake was there, grinning.

"I won," he said.

"Did not."

"Did too."

She splashed him. He splashed back. For a moment, they were just two people in a pool, not worrying about perfect bangs or papaya smoothies.

Her iPhone sat on the patio table, screen down.

For now, that was enough.