Zombie State at Midnight Pool

I'd been in zombie state for three days straight—finals week will do that to you. My brain felt like it had been partially eaten, which was honestly kind of perfect considering I'd spent three hours playing zombie apocalypse video games with Jay because neither of us could sleep anyway.

"You coming to Chloe's pool party tomorrow?" Jay asked, not looking up from the screen where we were desperately fighting off undead hordes.

"Dude, I can barely remember my own name right now. Also, I suck at pool parties. It's just standing around in wet clothes trying to look chill while simultaneously not checking people out too obviously."

"That's literally every teenager ever. Also, Maya's gonna be there."

I paused the game. Jay knew exactly what buttons to push. Maya, who I'd been lowkey crushing on since September but hadn't managed more than three complete sentences around without sounding like an absolute wreck.

The pool party was exactly what I expected—loud music, people I barely knew, and me clutching a red plastic cup like it was a lifeline. I was doing my usual thing: lurking near the snacks, pretending to be deeply interested in chip options, when I saw Maya.

She was standing by the padel court in Chloe's backyard (because apparently Chloe's family was rich enough to have a padel court, whatever that even was), watching people play. She looked sort of lonely, which made zero sense because Maya was the kind of person who usually had a swarm of friends around her.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I started walking toward her. My heart was running a marathon.

"Hey," I said. Smooth. Definitely smooth.

Maya turned, and her face lit up in a way that made my stomach do something weird. "Hey! You're in my history class, right? You fell asleep during the French Revolution lecture."

"In my defense, that lecture was at 8 AM and I'd been up until 3 AM finishing a paper."

"Same. I was literally a zombie that day." She laughed, and it was this real, unforced laugh that made me feel like maybe I wasn't terrible at conversation.

We ended up sitting by the pool, dipping our feet in the water while everyone else was being loud and chaotic inside. We talked about everything—our zombie-level exhaustion, how much we both hated padel ("it's just tennis but stressful," she said), how we both felt like we were faking being functional human beings most of the time.

"Can I tell you something?" she asked, looking at the water reflecting the patio lights. "I see you in the halls, and I always wanted to say hi, but I didn't think you'd want to talk to me."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know. You always look like you have it together. And I'm over here trying not to fall apart constantly."

I stared at her, processing this. "Maya, I am *never* together. I'm a mess. I just have a good resting face."

She laughed again, and then she splashed water at me.

I splashed back.

Fully clothed, at midnight, while everyone else was inside dancing to music that was too loud, we jumped into the pool together.

Later, walking home dripping wet with Jay, he asked, "So, how did it go?"

"I think I just made a friend," I said, and the word felt too small for what had actually happened.

"Just a friend?"

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe more. I don't know. But I think she gets it. The zombie thing. The trying to figure out who you're supposed to be thing."

"Nice," Jay said. "Also, you're dripping on my couch."

"Worth it."