Three AM Server Dreams

Marcus felt like a **zombie** dragging himself through third period, his eyes burning from the all-nighter. Emma and Jayden were already drifting away—figuratively, anyway—heading toward their new friend group without even glancing back. Some best friends forever, right?

"You good?" asked Sarah, sliding into the desk beside him. "You look dead."

"Just played until 3 AM," Marcus mumbled, rubbing his temples. "Server maintenance had us all on."

**Running** on caffeine and nostalgia wasn't sustainable, but it beat sitting alone thinking about how his friend group had disintegrated like cheap paper.

At home, his **dog** Buster greeted him with that desperate-energy bounce, the one that said YOU'RE HOME FINALLY FOREVER. Marcus flopped onto his bed staring at the ceiling where his childhood **goldfish** banner still hung—some bizarre carnival prize from when he was seven, before everything got complicated.

His phone buzzed. Emma. 3:47. No, that was impossible—she hadn't texted first in months.

"cable's out again," she sent. "you still playing?"

Marcus stared at the message. The **cable** going down meant no WiFi for her building, which meant she was bored enough to reach out to her ex-best friend.

"always," he typed back, trying to sound chill instead of hope-pathetic.

Five minutes later, Emma was in his room, pretending like she hadn't been ignoring him for weeks. They played in silence until she finally said, "I missed this."

"Yeah," Marcus said, not looking at her. "Me too."

Maybe friends could drift apart and still find their way back. Maybe growing up didn't mean losing everything. Marcus's goldfish banner seemed less stupid suddenly. Some things, unlike actual goldfish, didn't have to have a three-second memory.

"Cable comes back tomorrow," Emma said, picking up her controller.

"I know," Marcus said. "But we're playing anyway."