Electric in the Bathroom

Maya's first high school party felt like walking into a movie she'd binge-watched but never starred in. The basement of Jake's house pulsed with cheap LED strips and way too many bodies squeezed way too tight. She'd spent forty minutes straightening her naturally curly hair until it hung like a dark curtain around her face, but now she just felt like she was hiding behind it.

The spinach situation started at dinner. Her mom had made that weird spanakopita thing from the Pinterest board she'd been obsessing over, and Maya had scarfed it down before rushing to get ready. Now, three hours later, she caught her reflection in Jake's bathroom mirror and froze. A tiny green fleck mocked her from between her front teeth.

"You've gotta be kidding me," she groaned, digging with her pinky nail like her life depended on it.

The door creaked open. Maya jumped like she'd been caught doing something criminal, which honestly, having spinach in your teeth at your first party felt pretty criminal.

"Oh, sorry—"

A guy stood there. Liam, from her AP Euro class. The one who sat three rows back and always wore those beat-up Converse.

"No, I was just—" Maya started.

"Spinach in your teeth?" Liam raised an eyebrow. "Happened to me last year at homecoming. I talked to like twelve people with a gigantic piece of parsley stuck there."

Maya's face burned. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"People are weird about that stuff." He leaned against the doorframe. "Want a mirror? I mean, obviously you have one, but like, moral support?"

Something about the way he said it—deadpan but actually nice—made her shoulders drop two inches.

"You're not gonna spy on me and tell everyone I'm a disaster?"

"Nah." He pulled out his phone. "I'll be your lookout. If anyone comes, I'll create a distraction. Fake asthma attack or something."

Maya laughed before she could stop herself. In that second, lightning struck—except not the scary kind. The electric, your-stomach-drops-but-in-a-good-way kind. The kind where suddenly you're not the awkward girl with spinach in her teeth and way too much hair product. You're just Maya, and somehow that's enough.

"You're actually not terrible," she said, finally getting the last piece of spinach out.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Liam grinned. "So, you avoiding everyone out here or just taking a strategic break from the chaos?"

"Both?" Maya wiped her hands on her jeans. "This is my first party thing. I feel like everyone knows what they're doing except me."

"Fake it," he said. "That's what everyone else is doing too. We're all just pretending we belong here."

The bass from the living room thumped through the walls. Outside, rain started drumming against the window—real lightning flashing across the sky now.

"Wanna go back out together?" Maya asked, surprising herself. "Safety in numbers?"

Liam pushed off the doorframe. "Yeah. Plus, if you get anything else in your teeth, I've got your back."

Maya ran a hand through her hair, letting some of the curls spring back to life. She didn't need to hide anymore.