The Dead Pool Summer

Marcus's thumb scrolled through his iPhone like a zombie searching for brains—except he was only hunting for likes. Sixty-three notifications. Three people tagged him in the same TikTok. Summer was supposed to be legendary, but he was stuck watching everyone else live theirs through a screen.

"You coming in or what?" Jenna called from the pool, her laugh cutting through his scrolling trance. She was swimming laps with that effortless grace that made his chest ache.

"Yeah," Marcus muttered, but his feet stayed planted. Tyler was there, being a total bull to everyone—shoving kids off the inflatables, calling everyone "bro" with that aggressive edge that somehow still made him popular. Marcus had patched things up with Tyler after their fight last month, but the friendship felt radioactive now. Toxic.

His iPhone buzzed. Someone had posted in the group chat: POOL AT JENNA'S. EVERYONE GOING. BETTER NOT BE BORING.

Pressure squeezed his chest. He could be a zombie about it—ghost the party, go home, scroll until 3 AM. Or he could actually swim.

Marcus locked his phone. Like, physically locked it and shoved it in his bag.

"Marcus!" Jenna waved him over. "Tyler's being annoying. Come help us gang up on him."

Something shifted. This wasn't about popularity or proving anything. It was about Jenna's genuine smile. About the water glittering like liquid diamonds in the sunset. About being tired of watching life through a screen.

He jumped.

The shock of cold water snapped everything into focus. Surfacing, sputtering, Marcus found Jenna grinning at him. "Finally. You were zombie-ing out over there for like twenty minutes."

"Yeah," Marcus said, shaking water from his hair. "I think I'm done with that."

Tyler splashed them both. "What is this, a therapy session?"

"Shut up, Tyler," Jenna laughed, and Marcus did too.

For the first time all summer, Marcus wasn't watching. He was swimming.