Zombie Mode Offline

Maya floated through 7th period study hall like a zombie, her brain entirely fried from three consecutive nights of doomscrolling until 3 AM. She was operating on autopilot, surviving on vanilla lattes and panic.

Her cat, Beans, sat dramatically on her desk at home, where she'd left him that morning—probably already knocked over the water glass by now. Beans lived for chaos, unlike Maya's goldfish, Bubbles, who just floated in his bowl, living his best low-stakes life. Maya envied Bubbles sometimes. No SATs, no awkward hallway encounters, just swim, eat, repeat.

Then her iPhone buzzed in her pocket, jolting her out of her zombie state. Unknown number. That weird mix of anxiety and hope hit her chest like a caffeine overdose.

"Hey, it's Alex from English. You left your journal yesterday?"

Maya's stomach did that thing where it forgot how to organ function. Alex. The Alex with the perfectly messy dark curls and the dope sneaker collection. The Alex she'd been lowkey obsessing over since September while simultaneously being too terrified to make actual eye contact.

"Oh! Yeah, thanks. I was literally spiraling about that." (She had not noticed it was missing. She was too busy dissociating.)

"I can bring it tomorrow?"

"Bet."

Bet. Who said "bet" unironically? Maya wanted to evaporate. But also, she kind of wanted to sprint home and tell Bubbles the goldfish that his socially awkward owner had just secured her first real conversation with Alex.

Later that night, Maya finally put down her phone. Beans the cat curled up on her pillow like he owned the place (he did). Bubbles did a lazy lap around his castle. Maya lay there, buzzing with something that wasn't the usual background anxiety.

Sometimes being a teenage zombie meant moving through the world half-awake. But sometimes—rare, golden times—you accidentally said the right thing, and the world snapped into focus.

She fell asleep with her phone across the room, for once.

Tomorrow, she'd actually talk to Alex. Like, with her voice. And if that went catastrophically wrong, at least Beans and Bubbles would still think she was cool.