Zombie Mode at the Padel Court

The summer had turned me into a total zombie. Three months of scrolling, sleeping, and existing on autopilot while my friends went to Europe or had actual lives.

'You coming or what?' Maya's text flashed. She'd been my best friend since seventh grade, back when matching friendship bracelets was the peak of cool. Now she was moving in three weeks, and I was still in zombie mode, barely processing that my entire world was about to change.

The padel court was empty when I arrived, the glass walls slick with humidity. Maya was already there, smashing balls against the wall like she was trying to break something.

'About time,' she called out, but her voice cracked.

We played in this weird silence that felt wrong. Maya usually couldn't shut up about whatever drama was happening at her job, or how her mom was being extra, or which random boy had slid into her DMs. Today? Nothing. Just the thwack of the ball and our sneakers squeaking on the court.

'Dude, you're playing like straight-up trash,' she finally said, breathless.

'I know.' I leaned against the glass, my heart doing that weird fluttery thing it did whenever I thought about September. 'I feel like I'm not even here half the time. Just going through motions. Zombie mode, you know?'

Maya's face softened. She stopped bouncing the ball. 'That's not living, though.'

A flash lit up the sky behind her—lightning striking somewhere distant. The air crackled with that heavy electric feeling that comes right before a storm. Another flash, closer this time. The sky turned that bruised purple color.

'We should probably—'

'Yeah.'

We grabbed our stuff and ran toward the covered area by the parking lot. The first drops hit like someone was throwing buckets from the sky. And then—this massive crack of lightning that hit the transformer down the street. Everything went white, then dark. The streetlights flickered and died.

'WHAT was THAT?' Maya yelled over the thunder that followed, shaking.

I looked at her—really looked at her—for the first time all summer. Her hair was plastered to her face, mascara running, laughing like crazy because we were both soaking wet and maybe a little terrified, and suddenly I wasn't a zombie anymore.

I was HERE. In this moment. With my friend who was leaving.

'Maya,' I said, my voice weirdly intense. 'We need to make a list. A things-we-have-to-do-before-you-move list. Like, actually DO them. Not just talk about it.'

She stopped laughing. 'Yeah?'

'Yes. No more zombie mode.'

The storm broke overhead, rain falling so hard we couldn't see. But we just stood there, letting it soak us, making plans like our lives depended on it.

They kind of did.