The Summer We Learned to Receive

The cable guy was supposed to come between 8 and 12, but it was already 2:47 when Maya finally heard the knock. She'd been waiting all morning, stuck in her living room with nothing but her phone and her overthinking brain.

"Sorry about the wait," the guy said, not even looking sorry. His name tag read JASON. "System's been down all over the neighborhood since the storm. You're lucky I got to you at all."

Maya shrugged. Whatever. It's not like she had anything better to do on the first Saturday of summer vacation anyway. All her friends were at the lake, doing the thing she wasn't invited to because she'd messed up with Dylan somehow. Again.

Jason fiddled with the wires behind the TV while Maya sat on the couch, pretending to be fascinated by her phone. She wasn't.

"So," Jason said, surprisingly chatty for someone whose job involved crawling under other people's houses. "You going to Sarah's party tonight?"

Maya looked up. "How'd you know about that?"

"Small town. Everyone knows." He laughed. "I'm only two years out of high school, kiddo. The drama doesn't disappear just because you graduate."

A fox darted past the sliding glass door – orange and impossibly fast, like it was late for something important. Maya almost missed it.

"Did you see that?" she asked.

"See what?"

"Never mind."

Her phone buzzed. A text from Priya: *r u coming?? dylans gonna be there*

Maya stared at the message. She'd been avoiding Dylan since the incident – which wasn't even an incident, really, just a moment where she'd said something stupid and he'd looked at her like she was from another planet. But that's the thing about being fifteen. Every little thing feels like the end of the world.

"You know what your problem is?" Jason said, tightening something with a wrench.

Maya blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You're overthinking it. Whatever it is. I can see it on your face." He stood up. "Cable's fixed. You're all set."

"Thanks, I guess?"

"Here's some free advice from someone who survived being a teenager: life's too short to spend it waiting around for things to happen. You gotta make the move." He grabbed his toolbox. "Also, try new things. Keeps you interesting."

After he left, Maya's mom came home from the farmer's market with a bag of groceries and way too much energy.

"Look what I found!" she said, pulling out the most ridiculous fruit Maya had ever seen – a papaya, weird and alien, like something that belonged on a different planet altogether. "I heard it's supposed to be amazing in smoothies. Want to try it?"

Maya looked at the papaya. She looked at her phone, still showing Priya's unanswered text. She thought about what Jason had said, about the fox that had darted past like it had somewhere important to be, about how she'd spent the entire summer so far waiting instead of living.

"Yeah," Maya said, and for the first time in weeks, she meant it. "Yeah, let's try it."

She texted Priya back: *im in. save me a spot*

And maybe the papaya would be gross. Maybe Dylan would still look at her like she was weird. Maybe she'd say something stupid again. But maybe – just maybe – she'd finally learn that some things are worth the risk, even if you can't control how the story ends.