The Last Summer of Us

Maya's phone died halfway through texting Kai about the pool party. She stared at the frayed **cable** like it had personally betrayed her, which, honestly, it had. The charging brick was somewhere in her disaster of a backpack, probably buried under last semester's history notes.

"You going to Connor's?" Jordan asked from her bed, where she was sprawled scrolling through TikTok. Maya's best friend since seventh grade, now somehow popular enough to get invited to everything while Maya was still occasionally awkward.

"Yeah," Maya said, though her stomach did that thing it always did before social events. "You?"

"Obviously." Jordan rolled onto her stomach. "Connor's parents bought that new **padel** court. Everyone's gonna be playing."

Maya had never played padel in her life. She nodded like it was NBD, which was her default move whenever conversation drifted into things normal teenagers did.

The party was exactly what Maya expected: too loud, too many people, and Connor's mom forcing everyone to take a **vitamin** C gummy before **swimming** because "immune systems don't take breaks just because it's July."

The pool was already chaos when Maya arrived. Kai was there, looking unfairly good in swim trunks, surrounded by what felt like everyone who had ever been cool at Lincoln High. Maya hovered at the edge, dipping her toes in, wondering if she could fake a stomachache and bail.

Then she saw the **goldfish**.

Connor had one of those carnival fish in a bowl on the patio table, probably won by some sophomore who didn't want to actually take it home. The fish was just floating there, doing its little fish thing, completely unaware that it was the most awkward living creature at a party full of teenagers trying too hard.

"You named it yet?" Kai appeared beside her, and Maya's heart did that annoying fluttery thing.

"Patrick," she said without thinking. "Like the starfish. But, you know, not a starfish."

Kai laughed. Actual laughed. "Solid name choice. What's Patrick's story?"

Maya made up a whole backstory about Patrick being secretly philosophical about pool parties. Kai stood there, actually listening, while the rest of the group did padel and acted like they weren't performing for each other.

"You're funny, Maya," Kai said when Patrick's tragic origin story was fully developed.

"Yeah, well, someone has to entertain the fish."

Later that night, Jordan found Maya sitting by the goldfish bowl while everyone else played spin the bottle.

"Kai was looking for you," Jordan said.

Maya's stomach flipped. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Asked if you wanted to hang out tomorrow. Just you and him."

Maya looked at Patrick, who was still just floating there, being unexpectedly cool about everything.

"What did you say?"

"I said you'd probably say yes." Jordan grinned. "Because finally, you're not just the girl with the broken charging cable anymore."

Maya smiled. Sometimes the most unexpected things — a dead phone, a random fish, a sport you've never played — ended up changing everything.