Green Between Your Teeth

Maya's palms were sweating so much she was practically leaving puddles everywhere. Which was exactly why she'd spent twenty minutes in the bathroom before Kai's party psyching herself up. "You got this," she'd told her reflection. "Just be chill. Be normal. Do not weird it out."

Normal lasted exactly seven minutes.

Now she was standing by the snack table at Kai's pool party, watching her crush walk toward her in his swim trunks, when her best friend Jaya whispered, "Uh, Maya? You got a little..."

"Little what?" Maya mouthed back, panic rising like bile.

"Spinach. Between your front teeth. Massive. Green. Very much visible."

Maya froze. She'd literally just eaten that spinach artichoke dip because someone said Kai made it himself and she wanted to prove she liked "mature" food, not just kid stuff. And now it was betraying her.

"Maya!" Kai called, grinning as he approached. Water droplets clung to his shoulders from the pool. "You gonna swim or just guard the dip all night?"

"I was—" She covered her mouth with her hand. "Bathroom. Need to. Emergency."

She bolted, dodging through teenagers and splashing through the shallow end of the pool, fully clothed. Her phone in her pocket? Definitely dead. Her dignity? Also taking on water.

In the bathroom, she scrubbed her teeth until they hurt and stared at herself. Why was being a teenager so incredibly embarrassing? Every social interaction felt like walking through a minefield blindfolded.

"You good in there?" Jaya called through the door.

"I'm never coming out," Maya said. "I'll live in this bathroom now. It's nice. Good lighting."

"Kai asked where you went. He seemed... concerned?"

Maya's heart did that stupid fluttery thing. "Concerned like 'she's weird' or concerned like 'is she okay'?"

"I don't know! But you're missing the party!"

Maya took a deep breath. Okay. So she'd had spinach in her teeth. So she'd run away dramatically. So she was currently soaked from the waist down. Worst case scenario: Kai thought she was weird. Best case: he forgot about it in five minutes because teenagers had the attention span of gnats.

She opened the door.

Kai was waiting. "Hey, I thought you fell in or something."

"I did," Maya said, gesturing to her wet jeans. "Literally. I'm that coordinated."

He laughed, and it was genuine. "That's actually impressive. Most people just use the stairs."

"I live to exceed expectations."

"You want to go back in? The water's actually decent tonight."

"Yeah," Maya said, and meant it. "Yeah, I do."

Her palms were still sweating. But maybe that was just what happened when you started living life instead of watching it from the sidelines.