The Bear in the Room

Maya stood at the edge of the pool, clutching her phone like a lifeline. The water shimmered turquoise beneath the string lights, but her stomach did backflips. This wasn't just any party—it was Jake's going-away bash, and she'd been crushing on him since seventh grade.

Her iPhone buzzed. A text from her bestie: "OMG just talk to him already!!" Maya typed out a response, deleted it, typed again. Her thumbs were shaking.

Across the pool, Jake's cat Tattoo lounged on a patio chair, judging everyone with mismatched yellow eyes. Maya had spent the last month feeding that cat treats every time she visited Jake's house, trying to win his heart through his pet. Pathetic? Maybe. Effective? Still TBD.

"Maya! You coming in or what?" Jake called from the water, droplets dripping from his hair like something out of a movie.

She almost said yes. Then she remembered the bear.

Not a literal bear—though her older sister did have that ridiculous stuffed bear from their childhood perched on her bed back home. No, this bear was the massive polar bear tattoo on Jake's shoulder, visible now that his swim trunks hung low. The bear that represented his move to Alaska for his dad's new job. The bear that was taking him three thousand miles away from her.

Maya's hand flew to her mouth. No. No no no. She'd been eating spinach dip all night, trying to look sophisticated and healthy instead of her usual Dorito-self. If there was green stuff in her teeth now, she would actually die.

She fake-coughed and sprinted to the bathroom, where she spent five minutes picking her teeth clean with her fingernail.

When she finally emerged, Jake was waiting by the bathroom door, towel around his shoulders, that polar bear ink staring her right in the face.

"Hey," he said. "I was hoping we could hang before I leave tomorrow."

Maya's brain short-circuited. "Um. Yeah. Totally."

"Cool." He grinned. "Also, you have a little..." He gestured to his own teeth.

Maya closed her eyes. This was it. The most mortifying moment of her life.

"No, not that." Jake laughed softly. "I was gonna say you have a little—" He touched his cheek. "—right here. But now I'm nervous about the spinach thing. Should I be worried?"

Maya's eyes snapped open. He was blushing. Actual Jake Hudson, blushing.

"I'm good," she said, and for the first time all night, she actually meant it.

The cat wound around their ankles. Jake's phone buzzed on the table. And somewhere in the distance, someone cannonballed into the pool, sending water spraying everywhere. But Maya didn't care. She was too busy realizing that maybe, just maybe, she didn't need to be perfect. She just needed to be brave enough to jump in.