unraveling at the deep end

Leo hated pool parties. Hated them. But here he was, standing at the edge of Chloe's backyard pool in his stupid swim trunks while everyone else acted like this was normal. Like just standing around half-dressed wasn't weird.

"You coming in or what?"

Maya. His oldest friend. The one who'd started wearing eyeliner and talking about people Leo didn't know. The one who'd left him behind without actually leaving.

"Yeah," Leo said, and did the thing. The jumping thing. Into the cold water that hit his stomach like betrayal.

They'd been swimming at the Y together since sixth grade. Before everything changed. Before papayas became Maya's whole personality—she was vegan now, or plant-based, or whatever it was called this week—and Leo was still just Leo, who liked pepperoni pizza and didn't know what was cool.

The real problem wasn't the papaya phase though. The problem was cable TV. They used to binge-watch terrible reality shows every Friday, sprawled across Maya's basement couch with stolen snacks, until Maya's mom cancelled cable to save money and everything just... stopped.

"So I heard you're trying out for varsity," someone said. Jason. The kind of guy who said stuff like "no offense" right before offending you.

Leo shrugged. "Maybe."

"Bull," Jason said, and everyone laughed, but not in the fun way.

Maya didn't laugh. She looked at Leo like she was waiting for something.

The pool had a deep end. Leo could swim there, obviously—he'd been on swim team since he was eight—but something about the darkness down there, the way you couldn't see bottom, made him feel like maybe he wasn't actually swimming at all. Maybe he was just treading water.

He surfaced and Maya was there, holding something pink and alien-looking.

"Papaya," she said. "Try it. It's actually good."

He did. And it was weird, sort of musky-sweet, nothing like what he expected. But Maya was looking at him like maybe, just maybe, they were still the kind of friends who shared weird fruit instead of silence.

"So about varsity," she said. "You gonna do it for real?"

"Bull if I know," Leo said, and Maya grinned, and something in his chest finally unlatched.

The deep end didn't feel so dark anymore.