Zombie Summer

Marcus floated in the pool, chlorine stinging his eyes, watching the party unfold above the surface like some distorted underwater dream. His phone rested on the patio table, screen lighting up every thirty seconds with notifications that felt more like demands than invitations.

"Yo, Marcus!" Tyler's voice cut through the splashing and laughter. "Get out here, bro! Everyone's doing zombie walks for TikTok!"

Marcus didn't move. He'd been moving all summer – moving through baseball camp his dad had insisted would "build character," moving through his friend group's constantly shifting alliances, moving through expectations that felt heavier with every passing day. He was done moving.

Tyler jumped in, cannonballing right beside him. "Dude, you okay? You've been lurking underwater for like ten minutes."

Marcus surfaced, wiping water from his eyes. "Just thinking."

"About what?" Tyler tread water, studying him with that concerned expression he'd been wearing all summer. "You haven't been yourself since-"

"Since everything?" Marcus interrupted. "Since my phone blew up with fifty texts about who's dating who? Since baseball practice became my entire personality? Since I started feeling like a literal zombie going through the motions?"

Tyler was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. Since that."

The truth was, Marcus was exhausted. Not the tired that sleep fixed – the deeper kind that settled in your bones when you realized everyone expected you to be someone you weren't quite sure you could be anymore. The zombie thing wasn't a joke. Sometimes he watched himself from a distance, making the right jokes, showing up at the right parties, posting the right things, and wondered when he'd become so good at pretending to be alive.

"You know what's messed up?" Marcus said suddenly. "I'm actually good at baseball. Like, really good. But I hate every second of it."

Tyler blinked. "So quit."

"My dad would lose it."

"So what?" Tyler splashed him. "What about what YOU want?"

Marcus stared at his iPhone on the table, watching it light up again. Then he did something he hadn't done all summer. He swam to the edge, pulled himself up, and left the phone there. Water dripped from his hair as he stood, feeling lighter somehow.

"I'm gonna tell him I'm done," Marcus said. "And then I'm gonna come back and we're gonna do that stupid zombie walk thing."

Tyler grinned. "Finally. You've been acting like a zombie all summer. Time to embrace it."