When the Pool Went Dark

Marcus stared at his phone, thumbs hovering over the text to Sierra. Three little dots had been mocking him for ten minutes. Was she typing? Was she ghosting? He felt like a zombie from his all-night gaming binge, brain fried and reflexes shot.

"You coming to the pool or what?" yelled his bestie, Jayden, from the driveway. "The squad's already lit."

"Yeah, yeah," Marcus muttered, grabbing his towel. His mom stopped him in the kitchen. "Eat something first. I made that green smoothie with spinach and—"

"Pass." Marcus grabbed a papaya from the counter instead. "This is good enough."

"That's not breakfast," she called after him.

At the community pool, the humidity hit him like a wall. The scent of chlorine and coconut sunscreen. Girls in bikinis, guys showing off their cannonball form. And there she was. Sierra, in that navy one-piece, laughing at something Tyler said.

Tyler, whose abs had abs. Tyler, who'd been swimming competitively since kindergarten.

Marcus's stomach did that awful lurchy thing. He grabbed a lounge chair, pretending to be absorbed in his papaya. It was overripe, way too sweet, but he needed his hands busy.

"Yo Marcus!" Jayden called. "Chicken fight! Me and you versus—"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Dude, your dog is here," Jayden snorted.

"What?" Marcus turned to see Buster, his neighbor's golden retriever, trotting onto the pool deck with a leaked bag of dog treats. "Buster! How did you—"

The dog shook his fur, sending a shower of pool water and treat crumbs everywhere. Directly onto Tyler.

"Yo what the—" Tyler jumped up, slipping on the wet concrete and faceplanting into the pool with an epic splash.

The entire pool area went silent. Then Sierra burst out laughing. Not mean laughing — genuine, doubled-over, can't-breathe laughing. Marcus started laughing too. Even Tyler resurfaced, spluttering but grinning.

"That's what you get for showing off," Sierra said, wiping her eyes. She looked at Marcus, really looked at him, for the first time all summer. "Nice dog."

"He's not even mine," Marcus said, but his phone buzzed in his pocket.

From Sierra: you coming in or what?

He grinned, finishing his papaya in one bite. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."