Papaya Apocalypse

Maya's first mistake was trusting Liam when he said papaya tasted 'exotic and sophisticated.' Her second mistake was caring what Jordan thought.

She was fifteen, exhausted from staying up until 3 AM scrolling through TikTok, and now she stood in Jordan's basement surrounded by people she desperately wanted to impress. Someone had put on *Zombieland* for the third time that night, because apparently watching zombies eat people was the height of social sophistication.

"You gotta try it," Liam said, holding out a slice of papaya like it was some kind of initiation rite. "It's basically fancy melon."

Maya's iPhone buzzed in her pocket — her mom checking in, or maybe that group chat she'd been awkwardly added to. She ignored it, like she ignored the way her hands were sweating.

Jordan looked over, and something in Maya's chest did that stupid flutter thing. Jordan was leaning against the pool table, effortlessly cool in a way Maya would never achieve. This was it. This was her chance to seem interesting. Exotic. Sophisticated.

She took the papaya slice.

The first bite wasn't bad. Weirdly musky, kind of like perfume and disappointment had a baby. But then the texture hit her — slimy and grainy at the same time, like something that had already been eaten once.

"Well?" Jordan asked, and Maya panicked.

"It's... interesting?" she managed, her mouth full of what she was now realizing was definitely an acquired taste.

"Interesting meaning 'it tastes like someone ate a melon and then threw it up'?" Jordan said, grinning.

Maya laughed so hard she almost choked. "Exactly."

"Here." Jordan handed her a napkin. "Liam made me try it last week. I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Later, when the zombie movie marathon continued and everyone else was pretending to be brave, Maya sat next to Jordan on the couch. She checked her iPhone — a text from her mom asking if she was having fun. She typed back 'actually, yeah' and meant it.

Sometimes fitting in meant admitting something was gross. Sometimes it meant sitting next to someone watching fake zombies get their heads blown off and feeling more real than she had in weeks.