The Summer We Swam Through Screens

Maya's iPhone clutched in her hand like a security blanket, the screen illuminating her face with the familiar blue glow that had become her constant companion. She was thirteen, standing at the edge of the pool party where everyone seemed to know the secret social rules she'd somehow missed.

"Maya! Put that thing down and get in here!" Jake called from the water, droplets cascading off his shoulders like diamonds. He was the kind of boy who made padel look cool, his backwards cap and effortless confidence making everything seem easy.

She hesitated. Her mom had packed her swimming bag with those embarrassingly colorful vitamin gummies—"for your immunity, honey!"—as if being a teenager wasn't already weird enough. She'd stuffed them at the bottom, hoping nobody would notice.

The cat, a scrappy orange tabby that belonged to Jake's family, had been watching her from the deck chair. It padded over and rubbed against her leg, its purr vibrating through her skin like reassurance. The cat didn't care if she posted enough stories or had enough followers. The cat just wanted company.

"Hey," Jake said, suddenly beside her, shaking water from his hair. "You okay? You've been standing there forever scrolling."

She jumped, nearly dropping her phone. "Yeah, just... thinking."

"About what?" He leaned against the pool edge, casual and unbothered.

She looked at her phone, then at the water, then at the cat winding through her legs. "About how sometimes I feel like I'm watching everyone else live instead of actually living."

Jake laughed, but not in a mean way. "Dude, same. That's why I play padel so much—it's the only time I'm not thinking about who's watching or what I'm posting."

Maya blinked. Really? Jake? The guy who seemed like he had it all figured out?

"Wanna play?" he asked, nodding toward the padel court. "I promise not to annihilate you too badly."

She looked at her iPhone one last time, then tucked it into her bag beside the stupid vitamin gummies. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that."

The cat purred louder, as if approving her choice, and for the first time all summer, Maya didn't reach for her phone to document the moment. She just jumped into the pool.