Zombie in the Corner

I felt like a total zombie standing there, Red Solo cup in hand, watching Jackson Miller hold court across the room. Jackson, whose Instagram stories literally have more views than our entire school's population. Jackson, who'd somehow convinced half the junior class to join his stupid energy drink MLM—essentially a pyramid scheme disguised as "being your own boss."

My palms were sweating so much I thought I might actually drop my phone. Maya, my best friend since sixth grade, had been weirdly distant all week, and tonight she was glued to Jackson's side, laughing like everything he said was comedy gold.

"You look like you're about to pass out," someone said beside me.

I jumped. It was Leo, the quiet kid from my English class who always wore that same black beanie, pulled low over his eyes. I'd literally never heard him speak until now.

"Rough night," I managed.

"Wanna bail?" He adjusted his hat. "There's a zombie movie marathon on Netflix. Way better than watching people pretend to care about energy drinks."

I looked at Maya, caught her eye for a split second. She looked away quickly.

"Yeah," I said. "Let's go."

We ended up at Leo's house, eating stale popcorn and watching actual terrible zombie movies while making fun of the plot holes. My palms stopped sweating somewhere around the second movie. Leo took off his hat around the third, revealing messy brown hair and a surprisingly nice smile.

"You know," Leo said during the credits, "I've been meaning to talk to you in English for weeks. Just never knew what to say."

"Same," I admitted.

Maya texted me at 2 AM: * Jackson's MLM thing crashed. Turns out it was actually illegal. Everyone's freaking out. Are you okay? *

I stared at my phone, then at Leo, who was animatedly explaining why zombie apocalypse survival plans were actually pretty useful life skills.

*Better than okay,* I typed back.

Sometimes the best things happen when you stop trying to climb pyramids that don't matter and just watch zombie movies with people who actually get it. Even if they do wear the same hat every day.