Zombie State of Mind

By Friday afternoon, I was basically a zombie. Third consecutive night of staying up until 3 AM scrolling through TikTok, refreshing my iPhone like my life depended on it, even though nothing new had posted since I'd checked two minutes before.

The exhaustion hit hard during lunch when Maya asked if I was okay, and I literally stared at her for ten seconds before my brain processed the words. That's when Tyler — who I'd been low-key flirting with all week — made eye contact with me and immediately looked away.

"Your hair," Maya whispered, covering her mouth.

I pulled out my phone camera and oh my god. OH. MY. GOD. The front of my hair was sticking straight up like I'd been electrocuted. And there was a mysterious green stain near my hairline that I'm pretty sure came from yesterday's art project disaster that I thought I'd completely washed out.

"I look like a zombie who got into a fight with a highlighter," I groaned, shoving my iPhone into my backpack like I could somehow delete this moment from existence.

"You kinda do," Maya said, then laughed. "But like, in a way? It's giving 'chaotic academic weapon energy.'"

Tyler walked by our table and did this tiny half-smile thing. My heart did that stupid flutter it always did when he was near, zombie hair or not.

Maya raised an eyebrow. "I think he's into it."

"He's into the zombie aesthetic?"

"He's into you being real, babe. Not performing all the time."

I looked at my ridiculous green-stained, gravity-defying hair in the black phone screen. Maybe she had a point. Maybe the exhaustion and the mess and the chaos was actually just... being fifteen. And maybe that was enough.

I slung my bag over my shoulder, hair still a disaster, iPhone finally tucked away. Tyler was waiting by the door.

"Hey," he said. "You look... tired."

"Zombie mode activated," I said, and he actually laughed.

"Same," he said. "Wanna walk to class together?"

My hair could wait. The zombie state could wait. Right now, I had somewhere to be.