Green Smoothie Prophecy

The pool party was already mid-swing when Jesse arrived, fashionably late but internally freaking out. He'd been crushing on Maya since seventh period English, and tonight was supposedly the night. His friends had hyped him up so hard he felt practically radioactive with anticipation.

'Yo, Jesse! Finally!' Marcus called out, already waist-deep in the pool. 'Grab a drink, bro. There's, like, everything.'

Jesse made his way to the drink table, heart doing gymnastics. Maya was there, leaning against the patio umbrella, looking annoyingly perfect in her cutoffs and bikini top. She was nursing some green sludge from a mason jar.

'What're you drinking?' he asked, trying to sound casual and not like he'd rehearsed this exact line in his mirror approximately forty times.

Maya held up the jar. 'Spinach smoothie. My mom's basically forcing me to do this cleanse thing. Apparently my body is a temple or whatever.' She made a face. 'Want a sip? It tastes like actual grass.'

Jesse shrugged. 'Sure, why not? Live a little.' He took a sip and immediately regretted everything. His face apparently betrayed him because Maya cracked up.

'Your expression! Oh my god, that's priceless.' She was actually laughing, not just being polite. This was going better than expected.

He set the jar down on the table, but his hand was shaking from pure adrenaline, and the jar tipped over. Green sludge splashed everywhere — all over the table, all over his favorite white sneakers, and somehow all over Maya's hands.

'Oh shit, I'm so sorry!' Jesse scrambled for napkins, his face burning hot enough to power a small city. 'I literally just — I'm an idiot.'

Maya stared at her green-stained hands, then started laughing again. 'Jesse, it's fine. Chill.' She held up her palm, which looked like it had been through a salad explosion. 'Dude, check it out. I've got spinach palm. It's a thing now.'

He couldn't help it — he laughed too. The tension that had been coiled in his chest since he walked in started to unravel.

'Hey, speaking of hands...' Maya grabbed his wrist, turning his palm up. 'My cousin taught me palm reading at camp. It's totally bogus but let me see.'

Jesse's heart did something complicated. 'Yeah? What's the verdict?'

She traced the lines on his palm, her fingers still slightly green. 'You're gonna live a long life, get married, have like three kids. Oh, and you're definitely gonna need to take your vitamin D supplements. Your health line is looking sketchy, bro.'

'Vitamin D? Seriously?'

'Dead serious.' She looked up, grinning. 'Also, you're gonna mess up a lot but it's gonna be fine. That's just life, right?'

Something about the way she said it — like she already knew his mess-ups and didn't care — made Jesse feel suddenly okay with being uncool. With spilling things. With not having everything figured out.

'Maya!' someone called from the pool. 'Come in! The water's perfect!'

She started to let go of his hand, then hesitated. 'Hey, you coming?'

Jesse looked at his own palm, still faintly green where she'd touched it. 'Yeah,' he said, and actually meant it. 'Yeah, I'm coming.'

As they walked toward the pool together, shoes squelching with spinach smoothie, Jesse realized something: perfection was overrated anyway. Sometimes the best moments happened when you made a mess of things.