The Catfish Pitch

Marcus stood at the edge of the pool, clutching his phone like it was a life raft. The fifth-grade end-of-year party. Everyone was already swimming, their bodies cutting through the water like they'd been born doing it. Meanwhile, Marcus was still trying to figure out how to exist without making everything weird.

"You coming in or what?" Jenna called from the water. She was the reason he'd even come. Jenna with her sun-streaked hair and that laugh that made his chest feel weird.

"Yeah, just..."

"Bullshit," his brain supplied. He hadn't even said anything yet.

His cat, Buster, had had more swagger than this. Buster who'd disappeared last week, leaving Marcus alone in his too-quiet room. He missed how the cat would sprawl across his homework during baseball season, like even his homework needed chill time.

"Marcus!" Jenna waved him over.

He stepped to the edge. The water looked both inviting and terrifying, like everything else in his life lately. Maybe if he just—

And then he saw it. A cat sitting on the pool deck, staring at him with yellow eyes. Not Buster. This one was gray, with one ear that folded down like it was stuck in permanent question mode.

The cat meowed. Like, actually meowed at him.

"You too?" Marcus found himself saying. "What are you supposed to be?"

Jenna laughed. "Is that a cat?"

"Yeah," Marcus said, weirdly calm. "I think it's judging us."

The gray cat stretched, then walked to the edge and dipped a paw in the water like it was testing the temperature. "Meow."

"See?" Marcus pointed. "Even the cat's not impressed."

Jenna swam over. "Maybe it's waiting for someone to join it."

Marcus looked at the water. Looked at the cat. Looked at Jenna, who was smiling at him like she saw something worth seeing.

He jumped.

The water was cold then warm then everything at once. When he broke the surface, Jenna was there. The gray cat was still watching from the deck, looking satisfied.

"What took you so long?" she asked.

"Had to wait for the cat to approve my form," Marcus said, and then they were both laughing, swimming side by side, and suddenly everything was different. He'd figure out the baseball thing later. The cat thing later. The everything-else-later stuff later. Right now, he was just swimming, and it was enough.