The Papaya Sphinx

The humidity in Maya's backyard was thick enough to chew. I stood at the edge of her above-ground **pool**, clutching my towel like a shield, while everyone else splashed around like they'd been born in chlorine.

"Yo Leo, you gonna stand there all day or what?" Marcus yelled, flipping water at me with the precision of someone who'd never had a single awkward thought in his life.

Marcus was Maya's cousin from college, with perfect locs and that easy confidence that made my stomach hurt. Meanwhile, I was still trying to figure out if diving in would make me look like a try-hard or if staying on the deck made me look like I thought I was too good for everyone.

**Papaya** slices floated in a bowl on the picnic table, bright orange against the fading summer light. I'd never had it before. I'd never had a lot of things, apparently.

"Leo." It was Riley, my oldest **friend**, pulling herself out of the water. Water droplets ran down her arms like she was some kind of painting. Since when did Riley look like paintings? "You good?"

"Yeah," I said, which was a lie. "Just, uh. Charging. My phone."

I held up my fraying charging **cable** like it was a valid excuse. It barely worked anymore, only charged if you positioned it at exactly seventeen degrees north-northeast while whispering affirmations. Kind of like me.

Maya's dad had set up this ridiculous Egyptian-themed decoration in the corner of the yard—a plastic **sphinx** with glowing red eyes that some previous owner had left behind. It stared at me, judged me. The riddle wasn't what walks on four legs in the morning. The riddle was how everyone else my age had received the manual on being normal and I'd been absent that day.

"You're overthinking again," Riley said, because she knew me. She always knew me, which was exactly the problem. "Just jump in. The water's fine."

"What if I—" I started, but she was already grabbing my hand.

"What if you don't?" she shot back. And then she pulled.

I hit the water sideways, fully clothed, phone in pocket (RIP to my electronics, honestly), and when I came up sputtering, Marcus was laughing and Maya was tossing me a papaya slice and Riley was grinning like she'd been waiting for this moment for years.

"See?" she said. "Not the end of the world."

The sphinx kept glowing. The cable probably wouldn't work anymore. But papaya tasted like sunshine and new things, and for once, the water felt like somewhere I belonged.