Vitamin Z for Zombie

The summer after junior year, I spent three weeks in a zombie-like state scrolling through everyone else's highlight reels while my phone battery died faster than my social life. My mom, convinced my lethargy was medical rather than existential, started leaving vitamin supplements on my nightstand every morning. 'You're growing, Mason,' she'd say, like growth was something that could be fixed with orange gel capsules.

Then came the day Jenson - the bull-sized captain of our baseball team - slid into my DMs. 'Party at my place. Bring your A game.' I stared at my screen like it was an alien transmission. Jenson, who'd never acknowledged my existence beyond an occasional 'sup' in the hallway, was inviting me to the social event of the summer.

The vitamin gummies suddenly seemed unnecessary. Adrenaline would do the heavy lifting.

I showed up wearing my lucky baseball hat, the one I'd worn during middle little league when I actually hit a home run. Jenson's backyard was already buzzing - music, people I barely knew, the overwhelming scent of expensive cologne and teenage desperation. Someone had set up a makeshift baseball diamond near the woods, because of course they had.

'Yo, Mason!' Jenson materialized, a red solo cup in hand. 'We're doing this thing where we embarrass ourselves at baseball. You in?'

'Why not?' I shrugged, trying to match his energy. 'Haven't humiliated myself in at least three hours.'

Turns out, zombie-me from summer? Could still connect a bat with a ball. I sent one flying over the makeshift fence, and suddenly I wasn't the quiet kid from AP English anymore. I was the guy who could hit. Jenson dapped me up. Someone I didn't know shouted my name. For the first time all summer, I felt something like actual energy.

Later, sitting on the porch while people discussed the 'zombie apocalypse' like it was imminent, Jenson dropped beside me. 'Dude, that hit though.' He held out a handful of the worst gummy vitamins I'd ever tasted - the party favors. 'Want one? They're gross but apparently they're magical.'

I laughed and took one. 'Maybe they're what cured my zombie phase.'

'Man, we're all zombies sometimes,' he said, and I realized this bull-sized jock might actually be kind of wise. 'Sometimes you just need to swing the bat.'