Poolside Zombies

By the time finals week ended, I was basically a zombie. Three days of four hours sleep will do that to you. My eyes burned, my brain felt like mush, and I was pretty sure I'd forgotten how to have a normal conversation.

Then Maya texted: pool party at Jesse's. You coming.

Maya and I had been best friends since seventh grade, but lately she'd been hanging with the popular crowd—the ones who actually had social lives and didn't spend Friday nights studying. I was that friend who got invited out of obligation.

I showed up anyway.

The backyard was already packed. Kids cannonballing into the pool, music bumping, someone passing around a pizza that looked like it had seen better days. I stood by the fence, feeling like I'd crashed a party I wasn't cool enough for.

"You made it!" Maya appeared, dripping wet, hair slicked back. "You look dead."

"Feel dead," I admitted. "Think I'm still operating on like three brain cells."

She laughed. "Same. I literally just guessed on half my chem final." Her expression softened. "Hey, I'm glad you came. I know things have been weird lately with me being all... whatever with that group."

"It's fine," I said, but it came out wrong. Too fast, too casual.

Maya studied me. "No, it's not. I've been kinda zombie-ing out on everything lately. Obsessed with fitting in, I guess." She shook her head. "Stupid, right?"

"Yeah, actually. Because you were already fine before."

She was quiet for a second. Then she grabbed my arm. "Come on."

"Maya, I didn't bring a suit—"

"Neither did I."

She cannonballed into the pool, still in her clothes. I stood there for exactly three seconds before following her in. The water shocked me awake, everything after that felt real for the first time in a week. We floated there, fully clothed, while people stared, and it was perfect.

Some friendships survive the zombie phase of growing up. The ones where you can jump in a pool fully clothed together? Those are the ones that last.