the no-filter summer

Maya's palms were sweating. Again. She wiped them on her cutoff jeans for the third time, clutching her iPhone like it was a lifeline. Which, honestly, it kind of was.

"You're actually doing it?" Chloe raised an eyebrow, her snap popping with attitude. "That baseball cap isn't hiding anything, bestie."

Maya's crush, Alex, was by the pool, laughing at something his friend said. His hair curled perfectly at the nape of his neck, and Maya had been staring for approximately seven thousand years. She'd spent all morning crafting the perfect DM—casual but interested, funny but not trying too hard.

Her thumb hovered over send. Her heart was doing that thing where it felt like swimming upstream through molasses.

"Just press it already," Chloe groaned. "I can't watch this nervous energy anymore. My aura can't handle it."

"What if he leaves me on read?" Maya hissed. "What if he screenshots and posts it? I will literally never recover. My social capital will be zero. I'll have to move to Wyoming and become a ranch hand."

"Drama queen," Chloe said, but gently. She bumped Maya's shoulder. "Remember last month at his baseball game? When he literally spent twenty minutes 'fixing his shoe' right where you were sitting? He's interested, Maya. The signs are all there."

Maya thought back to that afternoon. The smell of concession stand popcorn, the way Alex kept glancing over even when he was supposed to be watching the batter. How her stomach did a little flip every time their eyes met.

"Okay," Maya breathed. "Okay. I'm doing it."

Her thumb pressed send.

The message delivered: "hey! u looked so focused at practice today lol. wanna get boba later?"

Three dots appeared immediately.

Maya's phone pinged.

"YES," Chloe screamed, loud enough that Alex turned around. He caught Maya's eye and smiled. A genuine, messy, perfect smile.

Maya's phone buzzed again.

"thought u'd never ask ;) see u at 4?"

Maya looked at Chloe, eyes wide, cheeks hurting from grinning. Her palms weren't sweating anymore.

"Boba," Chloe said. "You're buying. That's the bestie tax for witnessing all that."