The Padel Court Apocalypse

My hair was absolutely annihilated. I'd spent forty-five minutes perfecting the messy-but-cute waves, but one game of padel later, I looked like I'd been dragged through a bush backward. Sweaty, frizzy, totally un-cute.

"You alive, Maya?" Jordan laughed, tossing me my water bottle. His hair was somehow still perfect, because the universe was unfair like that.

"Barely," I groaned, collapsing onto the bench beside the pool. The August heat was no joke, and the humidity was doing me absolutely no favors.

My iphone buzzed in my bag – probably my group chat blowing up about tonight's party. That everyone was going to. Everyone except me, because I was grounded. Again.

"You're going tonight, right?" Jordan asked, like he could read my mind.

"Grounded," I said, staring at my reflection in the pool water. "My mom caught me sneaking back from Jake's at 2 AM last weekend. She said I'm basically a zombie until I prove I can be responsible."

"That's rough." He sat beside me, his arm brushing mine. My stomach did that annoying flip thing it always did around him. "Wanna come over instead? My parents are gone, we can order pizza and actually sleep."

The flip intensified.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Unless you'd rather be a zombie alone in your room all night."

I looked at him – really looked at him. Jordan, who I'd been playing padel with every Sunday since seventh grade. Jordan, who never missed my games even though he claimed to hate watching sports. Jordan, who was currently looking at me with this soft expression that made my chest feel weirdly tight.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I'd like that."

His phone buzzed. He checked it and rolled his eyes. "Party planning committee needs my input on the playlist. Apparently." He typed something quick, then pocketed his phone. "But that can wait."

The way he smiled at me made me think maybe being grounded wasn't so terrible after all. And even with my hair looking like a disaster zone, I didn't mind letting him see me like this.

Maybe the zombie life wasn't so bad when you had company.