Green Between the Teeth

The pool party invitation had been sitting on my phone for three days. Maya's house. Saturday. 3 PM. I'd been staring at it like it was a bomb, because in a way, it was. A social bomb.

"You going?" Kae asked, not looking up from her switch.

"I don't know." I flopped onto my bed. "Last pool party, Jordan asked why my "oranges" were different sizes. I'm not trying to have my body be topic number thirty-four again."

"That was seventh grade," Kae said. "We're freshmen now. Nobody cares."

Easy for her to say. Kae looked like she'd walked out of a TikTok filter without the filter. I looked like I'd been drawn by someone who forgot what humans were supposed to look like.

Saturday came anyway. I put on my one-piece — black, practical, unremarkable — and threw on an oversized shirt that hit mid-thigh. My mom had packed "something healthy" for snacks, which turned out to be a spinach wrap that smelled like disappointment.

"Have fun!" she called. "Make friends!"

Make friends. As if friendship was something you could craft like a DIY project.

When I got to Maya's, the backyard was already chaos. People everywhere, music thumping, half-eaten pizza boxes scattered like casualties. I grabbed an orange soda from the cooler and posted up against the fence, trying to look like I was definitely choosing to be alone and not dying inside.

Then I saw him. Liam. The guy I'd had a crush on since eighth grade, when he'd let me copy his math homework without making me feel like a total loser about it. He was in the pool, laughing at something someone said, water dripping down his—

Anyway.

I sipped my soda and tried to be subtle about watching him. That's when I noticed it. Across the pool, near the sliding glass door, someone was watching me. Actually watching me. Not looking in my direction, but straight-up spying.

It was Maya, her face pressed against the glass like a weird little bird.

She waved frantically.

I waved back, confused.

She mouthed something. I squinted. It looked like... your teeth?

My stomach dropped. I ran to the bathroom, locked the door, and flipped on the light.

Green. A giant, obvious piece of green spinach wedged right between my front two teeth. I'd been walking around with it all afternoon. Talking to people. Smiling at Liam.

I brushed my teeth for five minutes straight.

When I finally came out, Maya was waiting. "I was trying to tell you forever," she said. "I felt like a spy, but like, a helpful spy."

"How long?" I asked, mortified.

"Since you got here," she said, then paused. "Liam was definitely about to say something but I think he got nervous."

"Nervous?"

"Yeah, he asked me earlier if you were coming." Maya grinned. "He's been hovering near the fence waiting for you to actually come talk to him."

The spinach fiasco should've been the most embarrassing moment of my life. And okay, it was top five. But as I walked back outside, actually smiling this time, and Liam's face lit up when he saw me, I realized something.

Nobody was watching me as closely as I thought they were. And the people who actually mattered? They'd tell me when I had spinach in my teeth instead of letting me walk around with it all day.