Zombie Mode

The fluorescent bathroom mirror showed exactly what Maya felt like: a walking corpse. Three hours into her first high school house party, and she was definitely running on zombie mode. The bass from the living room vibrated through the floorboards, making her teeth hum.

"You good in there?" Sarah's voice came through the door. "Everyone's doing seven minutes in heaven!"

Maya's stomach did something that felt less like butterflies and more like aggressive moths. She'd been crushing on Lucas since September, and now she was supposed to be trapped in a closet with him? Absolutely not.

She fished in her pocket for the gummy vitamins Sarah had given her earlier. "These'll help you vibe," she'd promised. Maya wasn't sure whether they were actual supplements or something else, but she was desperate enough to try anything.

Downstairs, the circle was already forming. Lucas sat across from her, casually scrolling on his phone like this wasn't the most terrifying moment of Maya's entire life. She caught his eye and immediately looked away, studying a stain on the carpet like it was the most interesting thing she'd ever seen.

"Maya, you're up," someone announced. She wanted to dissolve into the floor.

The closet smelled like dryer sheets and old shoes. Lucas stood there, hands in his pockets, looking almost as nervous as she felt. The silence stretched thick enough to cut.

"So," he said finally. "This is awkward."

Maya laughed despite herself. "That's an understatement."

"I've never done this before," Lucas admitted. "Seven minutes in heaven. It seems kinda—"

"Cringey?"

"Yeah. Exactly."

Something shifted. Maybe it was the vitamin gummies kicking in, or maybe just the relief that he wasn't smooth and confident either. They ended up sitting on the floor, talking about everything except romance. His weird obsession with vintage video games. Her secret hobby of making bread from scratch. The way high school felt like one long performance everyone was tired of rehearsing.

"We're all just zombies," Lucas said, "trying to figure out which parts of ourselves to keep alive and which to let rot."

That was surprisingly deep.

When Sarah opened the door, they were still sitting cross-legged, mid-conversation about whether pineapple belonged on pizza. The teasing from their friends was worth it. For the first time all night, Maya didn't feel like pretending.

The real vitamin hadn't been in those gummies at all. Sometimes you just had to bear through the terrifying parts to find the actual good stuff underneath.