The Spinach Dip Incident

The concession stand smelled like artificial butter and regret. I stood there, spooning **spinach** dip into tiny cardboard bowls, while the **baseball** game roared in the background. My ex-best friend Jason was on the mound, pitching like his life depended on it. Our friendship had ended two months ago over something stupid—honestly, I couldn't even remember what started it. But now? Now we were strangers who shared the same homeroom and the same summer job at the recreation complex.

"You're going to burn that," Maya said from next to me, nodding at the spinach dip bubbling in the warmer. Maya was new to town, fresh from Chicago, with purple streaks in her hair and zero tolerance for my moping.

"It's already burnt," I said. "Like my social life."

She laughed. Actually laughed. "Dramatic much?"

After my shift, I did what I always did: headed to the pool for closing **swim**. The rec center's outdoor pool was my sanctuary—quiet, chlorine-scented, and filled with the kind of peace I couldn't find anywhere else. I'd swim laps until my arms felt like jelly, until everything that felt wrong in my life dissolved into the water.

But tonight, someone else was there.

Jason sat on the edge of the pool, his feet dangling in the water, staring at the **cable** running along the fence that powered the pool lights. He looked smaller without his baseball cap, less like the guy everyone worshipped and more like... just Jason.

"Nice pitch today," I said, because what do you say to someone who used to be your person?

He didn't look up. "Thanks."

Silence. The kind that used to be comfortable.

"My mom's been asking about you," he said finally. "She made that spinach dip you like. For your birthday, I mean. Before... well. Before whatever happened between us happened."

Something tight in my chest loosened. "You remembered?"

"Of course I remembered." He kicked at the water. "I miss you, you know. Not in a weird way. Just... you're the only one who gets my references to that old cartoon we used to watch on cable at 3 AM."

"Avatar," I said automatically.

"Exactly." He finally looked at me. "So? Can we stop being stupid?"

I dropped my bag on the deck and slid into the pool next to him, still in my work clothes. "Only if you admit I'm better at Mario Kart."

Jason grinned, and just like that, the earth tilted back on its axis. "Deal."