Deadgirl Walking

The text lit up my phone at 2:47 AM.

u up?

Maya. Obviously. I stared at my ceiling, feeling like a total zombie after staying up until 4 AM last night doomscrolling through the same three apps. My eyes burned. My brain felt like it had been put through a blender.

yeah why? I typed back.

can't sleep. need to talk. can I come over?

I froze. Maya Chen, who sat two tables away from me at lunch and had barely said three words to me all semester, wanted to come over at 3 AM. This was either the best or worst thing that had ever happened to me.

sure.

Ten minutes later, my dog Buster was losing his absolute mind, barking like someone was breaking in. I shushed him and opened the front door to find Maya standing there in oversized sweats and a hoodie, looking as wrecked as I felt.

"Your cat's in the window again," she said by way of greeting.

I glanced up. Sure enough, Luna was perched on the sill, judging us both with those glowing yellow eyes.

"Come in."

We ended up on my bedroom floor, surrounded by my half-finished history project and a pile of clothes I'd been meaning to put away for three days. Maya pulled out a joint.

"You smoke?"

"Sometimes. When everything feels like too much."

"Same."

We cracked the window and passed it back and forth, watching the smoke curl up toward the ceiling. Buster settled at my feet, and Luna finally hopped down from the window to investigate the newcomer, eventually curling up in Maya's lap like she'd known her for years.

"I'm failing algebra," Maya said suddenly. "My parents are gonna lose it."

"I can tutor you. I'm not amazing but I got a B last semester."

She looked at me, really looked at me, for the first time all night. "You'd do that?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"I don't know. You always seem so... put together."

I laughed so hard I almost choked. "Maya, I haven't slept properly in a week. I'm running on energy drinks and anxiety. I'm a complete zombie."

She smiled, and something shifted between us. The invisible barrier that had existed all year at school dissolved in the hazy blue light of my bedroom.

"We're all just faking it," she said.

"Yeah. Yeah, we are."

We talked until the sun started coming up, about everything and nothing. About how much we hated cafeteria food, about our weird obsessed-with-K-pop friend group, about how neither of us had ever had a real relationship but were both terrified of ending up alone.

"We should hang out tomorrow," Maya said, standing up to stretch. "Like, at school. In public."

"You mean sit together at lunch?"

"If you can handle the social suicide of being seen with me."

I rolled my eyes. "Please. You're Maya Chen. You're literally cool."

"And you're the person who let me into their house at 3 AM with zero questions. That's pretty cool too."

She walked to the door, then turned back. "Thanks for tonight. I needed this."

"Me too."

As I closed the door behind her, Buster let out a soft whine and Luna wound around my legs, purring like a motor. I crawled back into bed, exhausted but weirdly hopeful, and finally, finally, fell asleep.