Zombie at the Deep End

The text scrolled across my screen: *You low-key died at 2 PM yesterday.* My best friend Chloe wasn't wrong. Between finals week, swim practice, and my parents' divorce papers finally arriving, I'd been operating on zombie mode for weeks. Which was exactly why I was currently standing in Jessica Marino's backyard, surrounded by the popular crew, feeling like I'd wandered into the wrong Instagram feed.

"Maya! You coming in or what?" Jessica called from the pool, her perfect smile flashing whitening-strips white. The June heat was already melting my resolve.

"Yeah, just fixing my suit," I lied. My phone buzzed again. *RIP to your social life.*

I'd made varsity swim team freshman year, but that was before everything got complicated. Now the pool felt like performing on a stage I'd forgotten the lines to. The papaya fruit platter sat on a nearby table, exotic and weirdly out of place among the pizza boxes. Someone had probably ordered it for aesthetic points.

I jumped in anyway, because that's what you do when you're sixteen and desperately trying to not become the girl who peaked in middle school. The water shocked me awake. For a second, I wasn't thinking about GPA rankings or who was dating who. Just the cool, the motion, the way my body remembered what it was made to do.

Then I surfaced and saw him. Liam from my English class, sitting on the edge with his feet in the water, eating papaya like it was completely normal.

"Weird flex, but okay," I said, treading water.

He looked up, startled. "What? Oh. My mom's Cuban, this stuff's basically comfort food." He laughed. "Also, I'm hiding from Jessica's cousin. She's been trying to explain TikTok fame to me for twenty minutes."

"Hard pass," I said, swimming closer. "Mind if I join your anti-social club?"

"Be my guest." He slid over, making room. "So, what's your deal? You looked like you were mentally composing your will before you jumped in."

"Underrated skill," I said, hauling myself up to sit beside him. "Been in zombie mode lately. Just... surviving, you know?"

"Same." He took a bite of papaya. "But this stuff helps. Vitamin C or whatever. Or maybe it's just that it tastes like sunshine and gives no fucks about being weird."

I laughed, and it was the first real thing I'd felt in weeks. The pool party raged behind us, but somehow the edge felt like the right place to be. Not drowning, not performing. Just existing with someone who got it.

"Want some?" he offered, holding out a slice.

"Never tried it."

"First time for everything. New school year starts tomorrow, right?"

He was right. Tomorrow was clean slate. New chances, new failures, new reasons to feel like a zombie sometimes. But also new moments like this—unexpected, slightly weird, completely real.

I took the papaya. It tasted like everything I didn't know I needed.