The Sphinx's Riddle

I was a zombie. Not the brain-eating kind, but the worse kind — the kind who'd stayed up until 4 AM every night that week because Marcus stopped replying to my texts and my brain refused to shut off about it. Three years of best friendship, dissolved over summer break like sugar in warm water.

"You look like death," Maya said, sliding into the cafeteria bench across from me. "Again."

"Thanks, Maya. Really appreciate the support."

She pointed her fork at me. "I'm just saying. You need to sleep. Also, Marcus is staring at you. Again."

I didn't look. "He's not staring. He's probably staring at his new girlfriend, Sphinx-ness over there."

That's what I called her anyway — Sphinx. Because she was a mystery I couldn't solve. Why HER? Why NOW? What did she have that I didn't, besides perfect curls and the ability to make Marcus laugh like I used to?

Her name was actually Jessica, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that she'd somehow become the person Marcus wanted to talk to instead of me.

Maya sighed. "You know what your problem is?"

"Enlighten me."

"You're so busy being jealous that you're missing the actual problem."

"Which is?"

"Marcus isn't happy." Maya lowered her voice. "I saw him crying behind the gym yesterday."

The zombie in me woke up.

"What? Why?"

"That's the thing — he won't tell anyone. But he looked miserable. And Jessica looked like she was trying too hard to be perfect, you know? Like, orange lipstick at 8 AM kind of trying too hard."

I thought about it. Marcus had been weird all summer, but I'd assumed it was about Jessica. About leaving me behind. What if it wasn't?

The bell rang, but I didn't move.

"Go talk to him," Maya said. "Not as his ex-best-friend. As his friend."

"What if he doesn't want to talk to me?"

"Then at least you'll know. Better than being a zombie about it forever."

She was right. Being a zombie meant you were dead but still walking around, trapped between two worlds. And that's exactly what I'd been doing — trapped between who Marcus and I used to be and whatever we were now.

I found him outside, sitting on the bench where we'd shared headphones a million times.

"Hey," I said.

He looked up, surprised. Then he wiped his face. "Hey."

I sat down. "Maya said you've been having a rough time."

Marcus laughed, this awful broken sound. "Something like that."

"You can tell me to mind my own business, but... I miss you. And I'm worried about you."

He looked at me really looked at me, and his eyes were glassy. "My parents are splitting up."

The words hit me like a physical thing.

"Oh god. Marcus, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah. It's been... a lot. And Jessica's great, but she doesn't get it. She doesn't get ME. Not like you do."

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "I guess I didn't want to drag you down too. You know how it is."

"Yeah," I said. "I do know."

And I did. That's the riddle of being human, I guess — we hurt each other trying to protect each other. We become zombies, walking around half-alive, when all we need to do is say what's actually wrong.

"I'm here now," I said. "However you need."

Marcus smiled, and it was the first real smile I'd seen from him in months. "Thanks. Really."

The Sphinx's riddle wasn't about mystery at all. It was about remembering that the people who know you — the ones who really SEE you — are the ones worth holding onto.

Even if they do have terrible taste in orange lipstick.