Green Between My Teeth

The cafeteria was basically a social minefield, and I was walking through it with zero clue I had spinach wedged between my front teeth. Freshman year was already a whole thing—trying to figure out where I fit, who I was, whether I'd ever stop feeling like everyone was secretly judging my every move. Then I saw him: Caleb, sitting with the lacrosse team, laughing at something I couldn't hear. My palms went instantly sweaty, because apparently my body had zero chill around the guy I'd been lowkey crushing on since August. I grabbed my lunch tray and made a beeline for the table near his, trying to play it cool, pretending I was totally absorbed in my phone. But here's the thing about trying to act unbothered—you end up looking way more bothered. I was so focused on not staring at Caleb that I didn't notice Maya sliding into the seat across from me until she was already there. Maya, who somehow managed to be friends with literally everyone and never seemed to have awkward moments ever. She leaned in, fake-whispering loud enough for half the cafeteria to hear: 'So I see you're going with the salad look today. Very... committed.' I felt my face catch fire. 'What?' 'You've got spinach, bro. Like, a whole situation happening up there.' My stomach dropped. All those months of worrying whether I was cool enough, whether my clothes were right, whether I said the wrong thing in math class—and the whole time, I'd been walking around with green stuff in my teeth while Caleb sat five feet away. I started to stand up, ready to bail, but Maya just shook her head. 'Don't. We've all been there. Last week I walked around with mascara smudged all over my eyelid for three periods. Three periods, Elena. Nobody even told me.' Something shifted. Like, maybe we were all just pretending to have it together, and the real glow-up wasn't about looking perfect—it was about being okay with being the person who sometimes had spinach in their teeth and didn't even know it. That night, I saw Caleb's Instagram story. He'd posted a pic of his lunch with the caption: 'this spinach and I are in a committed relationship.' My palms didn't sweat this time. Some things, apparently, were universal.