Zombie Mode

Thursday night, 11:47 PM, and Maya was definitely in zombie mode. Three AP classes, debate club, and track practice would do that to you. Her iphone屏幕 glowed in the darkness of her bedroom, Instagram scrolling basically autopilot at this point.

Then she saw it—her best friend since kindergarten, Chloe, posted a TikTok. At their lunch table. Without her. But that wasn't even the worst part. The caption read: "finally found my people 💕" and showed Chloe laughing with Skylar's squad—the same girls who'd made Maya's freshman year absolute hell.

Maya felt like she'd been punched in the chest. She hovered over Chloe's contact, fingers literally shaking. Should she call? Should she DM? Should she pretend she never saw it and just let their twelve-year friendship quietly die?

No. She needed answers.

Friday at lunch, Maya marched up to their usual table with more confidence than she actually felt. Chloe was there, sitting with absolutely no one, looking like she might cry.

"What's up with the TikTok?" Maya asked, probably way more aggressively than necessary.

Chloe's face went pale. "You saw it?"

"Uh, yeah. We literally follow each other."

"It's not what you think," Chloe said, her voice cracking. "Skylar's been bullying me since September. She made me sit with them and post that stuff or she'd—" She stopped herself.

"Or she'd what?" Maya's anger shifted instantly.

"Or she'd share those screenshots from eighth grade. You know the ones."

Maya did know. Chloe had trusted her with some really personal stuff back then, when they were both figuring out who they were. Skylar using it as blackmail was beyond crossing the line.

"So I was like their little spy," Chloe continued, tears actually falling now. "Sitting with them, reporting back on who liked who, who was fighting with who. I felt disgusting every single day."

Maya sat down hard. All this time, she'd thought Chloe was drifting away, choosing the popular crowd over their friendship. Instead, Chloe had been protecting herself—and somehow, protecting Maya too, by keeping her out of Skylar's crosshairs.

"You should've told me," Maya said softly.

"I was embarrassed. I mean, who gets blackmailed into being a middle school informant?"

"My best friend, apparently." Maya reached across the table and grabbed Chloe's hand. "We're going to Principal Torres. Together. This ends today."

Chloe smiled through her tears. "You're not mad?"

"Mad that you didn't trust me? Yeah, a little. But we'll work on that. Right now, we've got bigger fish to fry—or in this case, bigger Skylars to take down."

They walked to the office together, and for the first time in months, Maya didn't feel like she was walking through life in zombie mode. She felt awake, she felt angry, and she felt like maybe, just maybe, they'd come out of this stronger than before.