Green Smile Disaster

Leo's beanie was pulled low, hiding the disaster that was his hair day. Not that Maya would notice. Definitely not.

They were at that overpriced smoothie place downtown—his treat, obviously, because that's what YouTubers said you were supposed to do on first dates. His iPhone buzzed in his pocket. Probably his group chat blowing up with 支持. He ignored it.

"So," Maya said, spinning her cup. "Tell me something actually real about you."

Leo's brain short-circuited. Something real? The only real thing right now was the spinach stuck in his braces from lunch.

Wait.

He NEEDED to check. LIKE, RIGHT NOW.

Casual, he told himself. Just casual bathroom break. "I'll be right back."

He speed-walked to the restroom, pulled out his iPhone, opened the front camera, and—

YEP. THERE IT WAS. A giant green piece of spinach, front and center, like it was paying rent to live there.

HOW LONG had it been there? The entire conversation? Was that why she'd been smiling that weird way?

He scrubbed his teeth with his finger, heart pounding. The bathroom mirror showed everything: the sweaty forehead, the beanie doing its best, the completely frazzled energy radiating off him.

When he walked back, Maya was gone.

Panic. Actual panic.

Then he saw her outside, kneeling beside something on the sidewalk.

Her phone had fallen. Face down. Spiderweb cracks across the screen.

"I'm so stupid," she said when he reached her. "It slipped. My parents are gonna kill me."

Without thinking, Leo reached into his backpack and pulled out the charging cable he'd brought—because he'd overprepared like A LOT. "Does it still turn on?"

She blinked. "What?"

"Does your phone still work?" He gestured with the cable. "Because if the screen's cracked but it still charges, you can at least—"

Maya laughed. Actually laughed. "You carry around a cable for first dates?"

"My mom made me," he admitted. "She literally has a whole list of—"

"That's kind of amazing, though?" Her phone screen flickered when she plugged it in. "Oh my god, it works. You saved me."

Leo's beanie suddenly felt too hot. "Least I could do after keeping you waiting."

"Whatever." She grinned. Then she pointed at her own teeth. "By the way? You got all of it."

His face burned. "YOU KNEW?"

"I was trying to figure out how to tell you without making it weird." She stood up, still smiling. "Since we're both awkward disasters, want to get food somewhere else? Somewhere without spinach?"

Leo pulled his beanie down lower, but he was smiling too. "Absolutely."

Sometimes the worst moments become the best stories. Not that he'd ever tell the group chat THAT part.