The Court Between Us

The orange sunset painted the padel court in colors that matched the bruise on my ego from earlier. I sat on the bench, nursing my loser's status while Jenna absolutely crushed her opponent on the adjacent court.

"You're not even trying," she'd said before her match, adjusting her padel racket with that practiced confidence that made everything look effortless. That was the thing about Jenna—she made growing up look like a sport she'd already mastered, while I was still reading the rulebook.

My iPhone buzzed in my pocket—the group chat exploding with plans for tonight that I definitely wasn't invited to. I pulled it out, 3% battery mocking my existence. Of course. I patted my pockets desperately. No cable. Not even the sketchy one I'd stolen from my brother that only worked if you held it at a forty-five-degree angle while praying to the tech gods.

"Need this?" A guy from the other court—Marcus, maybe?—tossed me his charging cable. His eyes crinkled with something that looked like genuine kindness, which was worse than pity.

"Thanks." I caught it mid-air, our fingers brushing for a second too long. My face flushed, which was ridiculous. We'd gone to school together since sixth grade, and suddenly I'm blushing over a charging cable like this was a romance anime and not real life where I was just a girl with a dying phone and zero athletic ability.

"You play padel?" he asked, nodding toward my abandoned racket.

"Not really. My friend—well, not my friend, but the girl who thinks she's my friend—talked me into it."

Marcus laughed. "Jenna? Yeah, she talked me into it too last semester. It gets better. Or you quit. Both are valid options."

I watched Jenna finish her match, high-fiving people I didn't know, glowing in that way people who are good at things do. "I think I'm going to quit," I said, and it felt like the most honest thing I'd admitted all year.

"Want to get orange sodas instead?" Marcus pointed toward the court-side vending machine. "I'll let you complain about Jenna. I have notes."

My phone plugged in, charging slowly like maybe, just maybe, I could start figuring out who I was when I wasn't trying to be someone else's friend. "Only if you tell me why you're really here," I said.

He grinned. "Deal."