Tides and Betrayals

The Pacific Ocean crashed against the shore as Leo stood behind the dune, watching them. Maya and Ethan sat on the beach blanket, laughing at something on her phone. Leo felt like a total creep, but he couldn't look away. He was basically acting like a spy, gathering intelligence on his best friend and his crush, knowing full well that Maya had been messaging Ethan all summer.

"You gonna stand there all day or actually come say hi?" Leo jumped as Kae appeared beside him, pineapple smoothie in hand. "I saw you lurking from the parking lot. It's giving obsessive."

Leo rolled his eyes. Kae had been roasting him nonstop since eighth grade when he'd confessed to liking Maya during truth or dare. Whatever. She wasn't wrong though.

"I'm not being obsessive," Leo protested. "I'm just... observing. Like a scientist."

"A scientist who's about to miss the bonfire," Kae said, pointing toward the pile of driftwood being assembled down the beach. "And you're definitely gonna want front row seats for whatever drama's about to go down."

The sun dipped below the horizon as more kids from school gathered around the fire. Someone brought papaya skewers - whatever, rich kid energy - and the smell of roasting fruit mixed with woodsmoke and saltwater air. Leo stood near the back, still feeling like he was bearing the weight of every secret Maya had ever told him about Ethan, every late-night Snapchat confession about how she'd low-key catch feelings whenever he liked her posts.

Then he saw it: Maya leaned into Ethan's shoulder, and he didn't pull away.

Something in Leo snapped. He marched over there, ready to finally say something, but before he could even open his mouth, Ethan stood up and grabbed Maya's hand. "Actually, there's something I've been meaning to ask you," he said, his voice barely carrying over the crackling fire.

The whole beach went silent. Even the waves seemed to hold their breath.

"Will you go to homecoming with me?" Ethan asked.

Maya's face lit up like she'd just won the lottery. She tackled him in a hug, and everyone cheered. Leo stood there, frozen, while Kae appeared beside him again.

"You okay?" she asked quietly.

Leo looked at them - Maya and Ethan, perfect together, while he'd spent the whole summer being a fake friend, watching and waiting like some pathetic papaya-eating wallflower.

"Yeah," Leo lied. "I'm good."

He walked toward the water's edge, where the tide pulled at his ankles. Maybe tomorrow he'd feel different. Maybe tomorrow he wouldn't feel like such a bull in their china shop friendship. But tonight, the ocean was cold enough that he could pretend his eyes were watering from the salt, not from anything else.