The Pool Where We Drowned

The chlorinated **water** stung my eyes, but I kept them open. Watching.

I wasn't supposed to be at the community pool at 9 PM. The fence said CLOSED, but my cousin Jayden left the gate unlocked like he promised, and I needed to escape the group chat that kept blowing up my phone. Everyone knew Tyler and I were done. Everyone had an opinion. Everyone was wrong.

That's when I saw her.

Harper. Tyler's new girlfriend. Standing behind the maintenance shed, phone raised, taking photos.

She was **spying** on me. The actual literal kind, not just watching my Instagram stories within three seconds of me posting them (which she also did, because of course).

I slipped underwater and held my breath. My lungs burned. When I surfaced, she was still there, illuminated by the security light. Part of me wanted to swim to the edge and confront her. Ask why she needed to document my pathetic late-night swims like I was some exhibit in the Museum of Freshman Year Heartbreak.

But I just swam to the ladder instead.

My bare feet slapped the concrete as I started **running** toward the exit by the parking lot. Not toward Harper. Away from her. Away from Tyler, who'd probably be waiting in her car. Away from the version of myself who let some junior-year basketball player determine her entire self-worth.

"Maya!" Harper called out. "Wait."

I kept running.

"I wasn't taking pictures of you," she said. "I was FaceTiming Tyler. He misses you."

That stopped me. I turned around, dripping wet in my pajamas and slides, while Harper Harper stood there holding her phone like a weapon and a peace offering all at once.

"Tell him," I said, my voice steadier than I felt, "that if he misses me, he can say it himself. Not through his new girlfriend. Not through a pool fence. Not at all."

I walked home wet and cold, and somewhere between the pool and my house, I finally felt dry.