The Fox Who Stole Summer

Maya's sweat made her phone screen slippery as she stared at the unread text from Leo. *You coming?* She'd been staring at those two words for twenty minutes, her heart doing that annoying flutter thing it always did when his name popped up.

"You're overthinking again," said Chloe, appearing behind her with two sodas. "Just like you overthought the lip gloss situation."

Maya rolled her eyes but took the soda. "I'm not overthinking. I'm strategically planning."

"Strategically planning what? How to make things weird with Leo? Again?" Chloe dropped onto the sand beside her. "He's literally just asking if you're coming to the bonfire. It's not a marriage proposal."

Maya hated that Chloe was right. They'd been flirting since Memorial Day — stolen glances across the cafeteria, hands brushing while reaching for the same eraser in AP Bio, that one time they'd walked home together and talked about everything except what they actually wanted to talk about. But every time they got close to something real, Maya panicked.

She was a fox, Leo had told her once, admiring how she'd talked herself out of detention. "Sly, clever, always three steps ahead." But she felt more like a fox caught in headlights — frozen and terrifyingly visible.

Her phone buzzed again. *Bonfire starts in 20. Bring s'mores?*

Maya stood up, brushing sand from her shorts. "I'm going."

"Finally!" Chloe pumped her fist. "What changed your mind?"

Maya looked at her palm, where she'd written *JUST TALK TO HIM* in sharpie that morning as a reminder that she'd been ghosting Leo for three days because she'd convinced herself he was only being nice out of pity. "I don't want to spend my whole summer wondering what if."

"Preach!" Chloe handed her a water bottle. "Now go get your guy before someone else does."

Maya took a deep breath and started running toward the bonfire — actually running, sand kicking up behind her, hair wild, not caring who saw. The salt air burned in her lungs, her phone bounced against her hip, and somewhere ahead, Leo was waiting.

When she burst onto the beach, breathless and sweaty and completely uncool, he looked up from the fire pit and smiled. "Took you long enough."

"Traffic," she lied, stepping closer. "Terrible."

He laughed, and Maya thought maybe this summer wouldn't be so terrifying after all.