The Fox at Sunset Beach

Maya's orange hair was supposed to be her rebellion. Her mom had freaked, obviously, but that was kind of the point. Standing at this bonfire party with sand between her toes, she kept touching the dyed strands, like she needed to remind herself she was actually someone new now.

That's when she saw him.

Liam, the fox-eyed boy from AP English, sitting cross-legged near the firelight. His hair fell over one eye in that way that made everyone's group chats explode. Maya's palms started sweating. Gross.

"Hey."

She jumped. Cal stood behind her, holding a suspiciously warm orange soda. "You're literally hovering, M. It's giving anxiety."

"I'm not hovering," Maya lied. "I'm observing. There's a difference."

"You're staring at Liam like he's a rare Pokémon." Cal cracked the soda can. "Just go talk to him. What's the worst that happens?"

Maya's brain supplied approximately 47 worst-case scenarios, each more humiliating than the last.

Suddenly someone screamed, "YO, CHECK THIS OUT!"

A group of guys were dragging something through the sand—some ancient, rusted cable they'd dug up, probably from old beach construction. They hoisted it like a trophy, chanting like idiots.

"Boys are so weird," Cal said.

But then Liam stood up and walked toward them, and Maya's feet moved before her brain could overthink it. She found herself standing next to him, close enough to smell his soap. Sandalwood and something sweet.

"Think it's from the 90s?" he asked, nodding at the cable.

Maya's voice actually worked. "Maybe earlier. My dad says they used to have these old cable lines running along the beach before they went wireless."

"No way." He turned to look at her fully, fox-eyes catching the firelight. "You know stuff about old beach cables? That's randomly cool."

"I know useless facts about a lot of things."

"Like what?"

"Like..." Maya searched for something not embarrassing. "Like foxes can recognise individual human voices."

Liam laughed. It was better than she'd imagined. "Foxes, huh? Is that why you dyed your hair? To communicate with them?"

"Touché."

"I like it," he said softly. "The orange. It suits you."

Behind them, someone started playing their phone speaker too loud. The bonfire popped. Everything felt loud and bright and possible.

"Want to walk?" Liam asked. "Away from the cable chanting bros?"

Maya nodded, unable to trust her voice not to shake. As they moved toward the line of palm trees silhouetted against the purple-dark sky, she grabbed Cal's soda from her hand and downed it in one gulp.

First kiss story: pending.

Status update: definitely happening.