Offline Mode

Marcus's iphone was basically an extension of his hand at this point. Thumb-scrolling through feeds while walking had become second nature, even if it meant occasionally bumping into lockers. His friends were already at the country club—his dad had somehow scored guest passes through work—but Marcus lagged behind, checking notifications that didn't matter.

"You coming or what?" Jake called from the padel court. "Elena's crushing it out here."

Padel. Like tennis but with walls and somehow more chaotic. Marcus shoved his phone in his pocket—miraculously, without checking it again—and jogged over.

Elena was diving for a ball that ricocheted off the back wall, her ponytail swinging like a weapon. She missed but landed laughing. Some guy Marcus didn't know high-fived her.

"That's Fox," Jake whispered, nodding at the guy. "Real name's Marcus, but everyone calls him that because he's sneaky good at everything."

Great. Another Marcus.

Fox (the original Marcus) caught his eye and grinned. "You gonna stand there or play?"

The next hour was a blur of running, swinging, and failing spectacularly. But somewhere around his third missed serve, Marcus (phone version) stopped caring about how he looked. The ball smacked against the glass walls, Elena cheered when he finally returned one, and Fox—whose real name he still didn't know—shouted "Finally!" when Marcus nailed a corner shot.

"Pool break!" someone yelled eventually.

They all piled toward the water, towels in hand. Marcus reached for his pocket to grab his phone and post something—anything—about actually being social for once.

But his pocket was empty.

"Looking for this?" Fox held up Marcus's iphone, water droplets splashing onto the screen. "You left it on the bench. Three hours ago, by the way."

Marcus stared. Three hours?

Fox shrugged. "You were kinda busy living, I guess. Weird concept."

The group erupted into laughter as Marcus's face burned. But as he grabbed his phone back—screen mercifully dry—he didn't unlock it. Instead, he cannonballed into the pool, surfacing to Elena's splash in his face and Fox's genuine grin.

The phone stayed on the bench. For once, the notifications could wait.