Poolside Zombie

I felt like a literal zombie. Three hours of sleep after that Valorant tournament until 2 AM will do that to you. But Maya had texted me "pool party 🏊‍♀️ u coming?" and there was no way I was saying no. Not to Maya.

The water in the Hendersons' pool glittered like something out of a music video—that perfect turquoise that doesn't exist in nature. Everyone looked so effortless, so glowing, so alive. Meanwhile I was rocking sunglasses indoors and trying not to yawn every thirty seconds.

"Marcus, you good?" Maya appeared beside me, dripping wet, her hair slicked back. She looked like a mermaid who'd just won a Grammy. I looked like I'd been resurrected from the dead.

"Yeah, just vibing," I lied, trying to sound chill.

"You look like you're about to faceplant into the chips." She laughed, but it wasn't mean. It was her laugh that made me feel weirdly safe, like I could admit I was exhausted and she wouldn't think I was lame.

"I may have stayed up way too late gaming," I confessed. "I'm operating on, like, negative brain cells right now."

Her eyes lit up. "No way. What rank are you?"

And just like that, we were talking. Really talking. About Valorant and ranked matches and how people underestimate you when you're quiet. Meanwhile, the rest of the party swirled around us—Jake doing cannonballs, Chloe and Sophie taking approximately eight hundred selfies for Instagram, everyone performing this elaborate social dance I'd never quite mastered.

I'd spent all year feeling like a zombie at school—just going through the motions, invisible in the back of every classroom. But here by the pool, with Maya genuinely interested in my ranking strategy and whether I thought the new patch was balanced, I felt weirdly awake. Like I'd been asleep for months and was finally coming back to life.

"We should play together sometime," Maya said, and my heart did this embarrassingly intense little flip.

"Yeah, that would be sick."

The water rippled behind her, catching the afternoon sun. For the first time all day, I didn't feel like the zombie outsider at the party. I felt like someone who belonged here, someone worth talking to. Someone Maya wanted to game with.

Maybe that was better than sleep anyway.