The Fox Who Saw Through Me

I was basically a zombie by third period, running on three hours of sleep and whatever vitamin D supplement my mom shoved in my hand as I rushed out the door. Junior year was eating me alive.

That's when I started spying on him.

Julian. The fox. That's what I called him in my head, anyway — with his messy copper hair and the way he moved through the hallways like he knew something nobody else did. He always sat by the window in English, sunlight hitting his profile like he was in a music video I couldn't afford to stream.

I told myself I was just observant. That I appreciated aesthetics. But let's be real — I was full-on creeping. I'd memorized his schedule. I knew he wore the same gray hoodie every Friday. I even knew he took these gross neon-orange vitamin gummies instead of the ones that actually tasted good.

Weird flex, but okay.

Then came the day my phone died during lunch, and I had to use the ancient cable from the library's loaner stash to charge it. I was sitting on the floor beside the outlet — because apparently that's my life now — when Julian dropped his bag next to mine.

"You know that cable's older than us, right?" he said, not looking up from his phone.

I almost choked on my own spit. The Fox was talking to me.

"It still works," I managed, feeling my face burn.

He glanced at me, really looked at me, and something shifted in his expression. "You're that girl from English. The one who's always falling asleep during the poetry unit."

I wanted to die. "I'm not asleep. I'm meditating on the deeper meaning of the American Dream."

Julian laughed — actually laughed — and I felt something stupid and hopeful bloom in my chest. "Nice save. I'm Julian, by the way. And you're definitely sleeping."

"Maya."

"Nice to meet you, Maya."

He didn't move. He didn't grab his cable and leave. He sat there beside me on the gross library floor while my phone charged at a snail's pace, talking about how his little sister hid all his vitamin gummies because she claimed they looked like radioactive slime.

The zombie lifted her head. The fox stopped being a mystery. And for the first time in months, I actually felt awake.