The Zombie at the Pool Party

I was literally running on two hours of sleep and three iced coffees when my phone buzzed. 'Pool party at Tyler's. You coming?' from Marcus. Obviously I said yes because FOMO is real, even when your social battery is at 1%.

The backyard was already chaos when I arrived - sophomore year energy at maximum capacity. Tyler's pool glowed with those weird underwater lights that made everything look vaguely radioactive. I spotted Maya immediately, sitting on the edge with her feet in the water, her phone practically glued to her hand.

'Sup, zombie,' I said, sliding in beside her. Maya didn't look up. 'Maya. Earth to Maya.' Nothing. She was doom-scrolling into the void, eyes glazed over like she'd been staring at short-form content for approximately seven hundred years.

I splashed some water at her. She jumped, phone nearly taking a swim.'Rude! I was watching this unhinged story about a girl who-'

'You've been watching it for ten minutes, Maya. You're stuck in the algorithm loop again.' I pushed her gently. She tumbled into the pool with a very dignified screech.

When she surfaced, sopping wet but finally present, she actually laughed. 'Okay, deserved.' She climbed out, wringing out her hair. 'You're right though. I've been a total zombie today. Finals week fried my brain.'

'Tell me about it.' I watched Tyler and his crew doing something ridiculous with a beach ball. 'Sometimes I feel like we're all just zombies, you know? Like, moving through the motions, scrolling, posting, trying to look like we've got it together...'

Maya looked at me, really looked at me, for the first time all afternoon. 'That's deep, coming from the girl who's been running on caffeine and spite since Wednesday.'

'Same energy though.' I bumped her shoulder. 'Hey, friend?'

'Yeah?'

'Let's be real zombies. Let's actually do stuff. Not just scroll through other people living their best lives.'

Maya grinned. 'Like what?'

'Like literally anything else.' I stood up. 'Race you to the snack table?'

'You're on.'

We didn't win any races that day, and we definitely didn't become the cool kids. But for the first time in weeks, I didn't feel like I was running through life half-asleep. Sometimes breaking the zombie curse is just about noticing you're in one - and having a friend who splashes water in your face until you wake up.