Digital Afterlife

Maya's **iphone** buzzed with another incoming text from the group chat she'd been ghosting for three days. Summer school chemistry had turned her into a **zombie** — hollowed-out eyes, surviving on caffeine and spite, shuffling through each morning like the walking dead. Her roommate Jordyn had left a **vitamin** C regimen on their desk, complete with a sticky note that said 'BESTIE IMMUNITY KIT 💪' in pink gel pen.

The real medicine, though, was waiting in the common room. Buster, Jordyn's chunky **dog** with one ear that flopped and one that stood at permanent attention, thumped his tail like he knew exactly who needed a good face-licking. Maya buried her face in his golden fur and let herself finally cry about the failed midterm, the scholarship she'd probably lose, the crushing weight of expectations at seventeen.

Jordyn found them like that — Maya mascara-streaked, Buster supremely unbothered, both collapsed on the cheap dorm carpet.

"Bro, you look like literal death," Jordyn said, dropping to the floor and handing her a vitamin gummy. "Also, your phone's been blowing up. Rachel wants to know if you're coming to Kai's party tonight."

Maya wiped her face with her sleeve. "I wasn't invited."

"Literally everyone's invited. It's a rager. Also, you're literally failing chem, maybe you need a night?" Jordyn paused. "Unless you're, like, catastrophizing. Again."

Maya's phone lit up with a selfie from the party location. And there she was — tagged, captioned with a heart emoji, included without asking. Because that's what real friends did. They didn't leave you out in the cold while you busy-dying inside.

"Okay," Maya said, sitting up. Buster immediately relocated to Jordyn's lap, traitor that he was. "But I'm wearing the zombie makeup. Commitment to the bit."

"Valid." Jordyn tossed her a lip gloss. "Just don't actually eat anyone's brains. I know you're hungry, but that's weird."

Maya laughed — actually laughed — and grabbed her phone. Maybe surviving wasn't about perfection anyway. Maybe it was about vitamin gummies, dogs who loved you at your worst, and friends who tagged you in photos even when you were too zombie to realize you belonged in them.