The Papaya Incident

Maya's summer was supposed to be about becoming someone new. Instead she was stuck at her cousin's pool party, hiding behind a pyramid of red solo cups, hyper-aware that her crush Leo was across the deck laughing at something someone said.

Her best friend Kenya texted: "r u gonna talk to him or just stan from afar all day 😭"

"shut up im working up to it," Maya typed back, sweat slicking her phone screen.

Maya'd been crushing on Leo since sophomore year. He had this way of looking at people like he knew secrets about the world nobody else understood. Her friend Rosa called him "the sphinx" because he was mysterious and confusing and impossibly cool.

Now he was standing by the water, dripping wet from the pool, and Maya's stomach did that thing where it felt simultaneously full of butterflies and completely empty.

"Just go over there," Kenya said at the snack table. Maya was aggressively scooping papaya into her bowl to avoid eye contact with anyone.

"I can't. What would I even say? 'Hey, nice hair when it's wet'? 'I've been emotionally unavailable for two years because of you'? Great options, Ken."

Then Leo walked toward the snack table, and Maya's brain short-circuited. She turned too fast and knocked over the entire papaya bowl. Fruit everywhere. Some landed on Leo's shoes.

Maya wanted to die. This was it. This was how her social life ended.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she said, already running toward the house to escape this nightmare.

"Maya, wait!" Leo called after her.

She kept running until she reached the bathroom and locked the door, sliding down until she was sitting on the tile, head between her knees. This was fine. Everything was fine. She could stay in here forever.

There was a knock on the door.

"Maya? You okay in there?"

It was Leo.

She stood up and opened the door, expecting him to be annoyed. Instead he was holding the papaya bowl, now mostly cleaned up.

"My bad," he said. "I shouldn't have startled you. My shoes are fine, by the way."

"I'm so embarrassed," Maya said, face on fire.

"Don't be," Leo said. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something before the... papaya incident. I noticed you always pick the papaya at parties. Nobody else does. What's up with that?"

"It's the best fruit and nobody appreciates it," Maya said before she could stop herself.

Leo laughed. "Exactly. That's what I've been saying. Everyone's all 'ew papaya' and I'm like, do you even have taste buds?"

They stood there for a moment, and Maya realized her heart wasn't doing the anxious fluttery thing anymore. It was just beating. Normal.

"So," Leo said. "Since we're both papaya defenders, you want to hang out sometime?"

"Wait," Maya said. "You've been trying to talk to me about fruit?"

"I've been trying to talk to you for months," Leo said. "You just seem like you're always in your own world. The sphinx thing. I didn't know how to break in."

Maya's brain couldn't fully process what was happening. "So you noticed me?"

"You're hard not to notice," Leo said. "Anyway. About that hanging out?"

"Um, yes," Maya said. "I would... like that."

"Cool," Leo said. "I'll find you later. Don't run away this time."

Kenya found her five minutes later looking suspiciously happy for someone who'd just had a public papaya disaster.

"You look like you just won the lottery," Kenya said. "What happened?"

"He likes papaya," Maya said. "And he thinks I'm hard not to notice."

"That's it?" Kenya said. "Two years of pining and all you had to do was throw fruit at him?"

"Technically I didn't throw anything," Maya said. "The bowl fell."

"Same energy," Kenya said. "I'm happy for you, but also low-key annoyed it took this long."

Outside, the sun was still shining on the pool. Leo was sitting with his friends, looking over at her and smiling. Maya didn't hide behind the pyramid of cups anymore. She just stood there, papaya-stained shirt and all, and let herself be seen.