The Poolside Meltdown

My phone slipped from my sweaty grip like a greased watermelon. Time slowed as I watched it—a perfect black rectangle—plummet toward the shimmering blue water of Sarah's in-ground pool. The **cable** connected to it snapped taut, then whipped loose as my **iPhone** shattered the surface.

"No, no, NO!" I shrieked, causing heads to turn. Half the junior class was at this party. Including Tyler.

"Dude, your phone!" someone yelled.

I froze. My phone was sinking. My social life was sinking. I'd been psyching myself up for weeks to talk to Tyler, who was currently floating on an inflatable **goldfish** near the deep end, looking unfairly cute in his swim trunks.

"Get it!" Sarah screamed. "That's like, a thousand dollars!"

I jumped in, fully clothed. The shock of cold water hit me like reality itself. I fumbled around the bottom, my fingers brushing against something slimy. A discarded **spinach** leaf from someone's salad? Gross.

When I surfaced, dripping and spluttering, my phone clutched in my hand, Tyler was paddling toward me on his ridiculous goldfish.

"You okay?" he asked. His voice was deeper in person.

I looked down at my ruined phone. Water dripped from my bangs. I probably looked like a drowned rat.

"My phone," I said, my voice cracking. "It's... it's gone."

Tyler climbed off his floatie and stood in the shallow end, water up to his waist. He reached out and took my hand—the one NOT holding my dead phone.

"That was honestly the most badass thing I've ever seen," he said. "Most people would've just let it sink."

I stared at him. Water dripped from my nose. My phone was ruined. I was soaked. But somehow, I was smiling.

"Well," I said, "I guess I'll be going analog for a while."

"Good," Tyler said, squeezing my hand. "Maybe now you can actually talk to me instead of staring at your screen."

I laughed, and for the first time all night, I didn't care about my wet clothes or my dead phone. I was just a girl in a pool, holding hands with a boy on an inflatable goldfish, and honestly? It wasn't the worst way to end a Saturday.