Zombie Mode at the Pool Party

The humidity hit me like a wall when I stepped into Maya's backyard. I adjusted my baseball cap, trying to look chill even though my stomach was doing backflips. This was it – the party of the summer, and somehow awkward freshman me had actually been invited.

Maya's mom had gone all out with the snacks. There was a whole fruit bowl situation happening, papaya slices arranged like some kind of fancy Pinterest display. I grabbed one, mostly because I needed something to do with my hands.

"You like papaya?" a voice asked behind me. I turned around and there was Carlos, the junior varsity shortstop, looking like he belonged in a cologne commercial. I'd been crushing on him since spring semester.

"Yeah, it's..." I started, but then the papaya slipped from my fingers and landed directly in the pool. Splash.

I wanted to evaporate. "I'm just gonna..." I mumbled, backing away toward the glass slider that led to the family room. That's when I saw it – a single goldfish swimming in a bowl on the counter, looking at me like I was the biggest loser it had ever seen.

"We're both just surviving out here, little guy," I whispered.

Later that night, a bunch of us ended up watching zombie movies in Maya's basement. Carlos sat next to me on the couch, and I was operating on about three hours of sleep from staying up too late scrolling TikTok every night that week. I was basically a zombie at this point.

"You falling asleep on me?" Carlos asked, nudging my shoulder. His hat was backwards now, and he was smiling.

"No," I lied, my eyes closing. "Just... resting my vision."

He laughed, and I felt something weird happen in my chest – like, good weird. "You're funny, you know that?"

The goldfish would be proud. I'd embarrassed myself at least three times, but somehow I was sitting next to Carlos while zombies screamed from the TV, and he thought I was funny.

Maybe being a social zombie wasn't the worst thing in the world.