Poolside Resurrection

The pool party was already in full swing when Maya arrived, and honestly, she was operating at like 20% battery. Two hours of sleep will do that to you — thanks, overthinking everything at 3 AM. She clutched her bright orange bathing suit cover-up like armor, scanning the backyard for anyone she actually knew. The humidity hit her immediately, thick and suffocating.

There he was. Liam. The absolute bane of her existence and the reason she'd spent half the night staring at her ceiling instead of sleeping. He was already in the pool, laughing at something Chloe said, water droplets glistening on his shoulders. Maya felt that familiar zombie-state settle over her — dead inside, somehow still functioning, shambling through social interactions on pure autopilot.

"Maya! You made it!" Chloe waved her over, and Maya's feet started moving without permission. She was running on pure nervous energy at this point. "Liam was just asking about you."

"Oh?" Maya managed, internally screaming. Why did her voice always sound so weird around him? Like, was that actually her voice or had she been possessed by a demon?

"Yeah, I heard you're trying out for track," Liam said, paddling over to the pool's edge. Water sluiced down his arms as he rested his chin on his crossed arms. "You're like, always running around campus during lunch."

Maya's brain short-circuited. He'd NOTICED? The realization hit her with full force, sudden and dizzying.

"Yeah," she said, finding her footing. "I mean, someone's gotta make it to class before the bell, right? Not everyone can just casually stroll in whenever."

"Teach me your ways then," he grinned, and something in his smile made her feel considerably less zombie-like. "I'm perpetually late. Coach is gonna kill me if I don't get my act together."

"I could, uh, show you my route?" The words tumbled out before she could second-guess them into nonexistence. "Tomorrow before school?"

"Deal." He held out a wet hand, and Maya hesitated for approximately half a second before shaking it, hoping her palm wasn't as sweaty as she feared.

The orange sun was dipping below the horizon when she finally left, walking a little taller than when she'd arrived. Maybe tomorrow she'd actually sleep. Or maybe she'd be up all night again — but this time, for a completely different reason.