Zombie Mode

Maya moved through the hallway like a **zombie**—eyes glazed, barely awake, functioning on three hours of sleep and what might have been expired coffee. Junior year was eating her alive piece by piece, and nobody noticed. That was the thing about being seventeen: you could be dying inside and still make it to AP Bio on time.

Then she saw him.

Liam was at his locker, laughing with his friends like he didn't spend every weekend gaming alone. Maya's **dog**, Buster, had changed everything. She'd started walking him past Liam's house twice a day—morning and evening—like some kind of low-stakes **spy** operation. Buster was the perfect cover. Nobody questioned the girl with the golden retriever who happened to loop past the same house every single day.

But today felt different. Maya's stomach did that thing where it forgot how to exist.

She reached into her backpack for something to ground herself and found the **orange** she'd grabbed from the kitchen counter. Perfect. Fresh. Not from the cafeteria.

Their eyes met across the hallway. Maya's brain short-circuited. She could keep walking—continue her zombie routine, maintain the spy distance, stay safe—or she could actually talk to the guy she'd been lowkey obsessed with since September.

Her hand tightened around the orange. Citrus scent spiked through the air.

"Hey." The word fell out of her mouth before her brain could veto it.

Liam turned. Full attention. Those annoyingly perfect dark eyes locked onto hers. "Hey."

"Want this?" Maya thrust the orange at him like it was a weapon. "I have. Two. Of them."

What was wrong with her.

Liam's eyebrows went up. Then he smiled—actually smiled, not the polite one he gave teachers. "Sure. Thanks."

Their fingers brushed. Maya's heart executed a full gymnastics routine.

"I see you walking your dog," he said, peeling the orange. "Buster, right?"

She froze. "You—you know his name?"

"I'm outside too sometimes." He shrugged. "You don't have to, like, strategically walk past my house. You could just... come say hi."

Maya's face burned. But not in a bad way.

"Okay," she said. "I will."

"Good." He tossed her a piece of orange. She caught it reflexively.

The rest of the day, Maya didn't feel like a zombie anymore. And maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to be.