Green Between Your Teeth

Maya's cafeteria tray wobbled as she scanned the packed lunch room, her heart doing that annoying flutter thing it always did when Liam was within a fifty-foot radius. Which he was. Currently laughing at something Ethan said, his hair falling into his eyes in that way that made Maya's brain short-circuit.

"Spinach again?" her best friend Jenna raised an eyebrow. "You know you're the only one who actually eats the salad bar, right?"

Maya shrugged, stabbed at her spinach. Her mom had started this whole "eat more vegetables" phase since Maya made the cross-country team, and now Maya was carrying around Ziploc bags of raw spinach like it was her personality.

"Whatever. I'm running the 5K this Saturday, I need to not die."

"You're not gonna die from lack of spinach, Maya." Jenna smirked. "Though you might die from social suicide if you don't talk to him soon."

Maya was about to retort when she spotted her opportunity: Liam heading toward the trash cans, alone. This was it. Her chance. She'd planned it all morning. Just say hey. Ask if he was coming to the meet Saturday. Keep it chill.

She stood up too fast, tripped over her own feet, and crashed directly into his path. Her spinach salad went flying. Green everywhere. All over his white hoodie.

"Oh my GOD," Maya whispered, her face burning hotter than she'd thought humanly possible. "I'm so—I am so sorry."

Liam looked down at his spinach-covered shirt. Then back at Maya, who was currently wishing the earth would open up and swallow her whole.

"Is that... spinach?" he asked, cracking a grin.

Maya wanted to evaporate. "I'm literally the worst person alive."

"Nah." He pulled a crumpled paper towel from his pocket and started dabbing at the mess. "I was literally just thinking my hoodie needed more green. Very in-season."

She snorted before she could stop herself. "That was terrible."

"I know." He looked at her, really looked at her, and something in Maya's chest did that flutter thing again. "You're Maya, right? From cross-country?"

"Yeah." Wait, he knew her name?

"I'm gonna be at the meet Saturday." He gestured at his ruined shirt. "And now I have to come, since this is basically your fault. Think you can beat your time?"

Maya blinked. "I—yeah. Actually, yeah."

"Good." He grinned, spinach and all. "See you there."

As he walked away, Maya's phone buzzed. Jenna: "WAS THAT A MOMENT??"

Maya looked down at her empty tray, her spinach-ruined crush encounter, and grinned. Maybe embarrassing moments weren't the end of the world. Maybe they were just how the good stuff started.

"Yeah," she typed back. "I think it was."