Zombie Walk Home

Maya's palm was literally sweating as she stood outside Jake's house, music thumping through the walls. This was it — her first high school party. She'd spent forty-five minutes on her eyeliner alone.

"You coming in or what?" Leo called from the porch, grinning that crooked smile that made everyone trust him automatically.

"Yeah, just... decomposition by anxiety," she muttered, following him inside.

The living wall was packed with people doing that awkward zombie shuffle — too cool to actually dance, but moving enough to prove they weren't dead. Maya felt like she was glitching. How did everyone else know the exact amount of chill to display?

She found herself on the back porch, away from the noise, petting a cat that appeared out of nowhere like it owned the place. The cat looked at her with complete judgment.

"Same," Maya whispered to it.

That's when she found Sarah — her actual friend since middle school, the one who'd somehow become Popular while staying real. Sarah was sitting on the porch swing, phone abandoned, just staring at the sky.

"Hiding?" Sarah asked, like she got it.

"Observational purposes only," Maya deadpanned, sitting beside her. "You?"

"Jake's cousin keeps trying to explain his cryptocurrency startup. I'd rather dissociate into the void."

They both cracked up. The relief was physical.

"Hey," Sarah said quietly, after a minute. "I'm glad you came. These things suck without my actual friend."

Maya's palm stopped sweating. The zombie shuffle inside seemed distant, unimportant. Maybe that was the thing about high school — you could survive the performative stuff if you had one person who saw through it.

"Wanna zombie walk to 7-Eleven?" Maya suggested. "I'm craving Slurpee like my life depends on it."

"Absolutely." Sarah hopped up. "The cat can come too if it wants."

The cat declined, but they walked anyway, laughing at their own terrible zombie impressions, leaving the party noise behind like something that could wait.