The Deep End

Leo's heart hammered against his ribs as he gripped the pool gate's cold metal until his knuckles turned white. The community pool pulsed with life—screams, splashes, Bluetooth bass thumping from someone's speaker—but he stood frozen like he'd forgotten how to human.

His best friend Damien appeared beside him, grinning like he knew exactly how much Leo wanted to bail. "Maya's watching you, bro. You gonna do this or what?"

That was the whole problem. Maya, with her chlorine-streaked hair and that laugh that made Leo's chest do this weird fluttery thing he'd never admit to anyone. She was doing laps with effortless grace, making swimming look like something normal people did without overthinking it.

The swim trunks were mortifying enough—his mom had bought them on clearance without consulting him, and they were the color of a traffic cone. But worse: Leo could barely swim. Like, could-doggy-paddle-for-ten-seconds-before-panicking barely. All his friends knew it. They'd been roasting him for weeks about how he always found excuses to stay in the shallow end.

"Bull," Damien said, reading Leo's mind perfectly. "You're not actually gonna wuss out. Not today."

"I'm thinking," Leo said, but they both knew he wasn't. He was just stalling because the water looked deeper than it had last week, and Maya had just pulled herself out at the other end, water streaming down her face, and was looking straight at him.

"You coming in or what?" she called across the pool.

And in that moment, Leo realized the only thing more humiliating than these ridiculous orange trunks was standing on the deck while everyone else actually lived their lives. So he did something stupid. He cannonballed.

The water swallowed him whole, cold and shocking, and for a second he flailed, pure panic rising in his throat. Then instinct kicked in. He kicked, hard, and broke the surface, gasping, alive.

Maya laughed, but not meanly. She swam over, treading water gracefully while Leo churned awkwardly beside her. "Nice form."

"I'm working on it," Leo said, already breathless. "You should see my butterfly. It's legendary."

"Bull," she said, splashing him. "But I respect the confidence."

Damien whooped from the deck, but Leo barely heard him. He was swimming. He was actually doing it. Okay, maybe his trunks were still orange, and maybe his technique was garbage, and maybe later he'd need Maya to basically teach him how to not drown, but right now he was in the pool, and he was talking to her, and for the first time all summer, he didn't feel like he was faking anything.

"Cannonball rematch?" she asked, grinning. "I bet I get more splash."

Leo grinned back. "You're on."