Palm Sweat & Panic Attacks

Maya's palms were sweating. Again.

She adjusted her beanie for the third time, trying to hide the fact that she'd attempted to curl her hair that morning and ended up looking like a poodle that had gotten struck by lightning. The hat was her only salvation.

"You good?" Jordan asked, sliding into the booth opposite her at The Grill.

"Yeah. Totally. Just... hot in here." Maya wiped her hands on her jeans, her heart doing that weird fluttery thing it always did around Jordan lately.

This was supposed to be casual. Just two friends grabbing milkshakes after school. But Maya's brain had decided this was a THING, and now she was spiraling.

They ordered. Maya got a green smoothie because she was trying to be healthy, which she immediately regretted when it arrived looking like actual pond water.

"So," Jordan said, leaning forward. "About homecoming."

Maya choked on her spinach-containing sludge.

"What about it?" she managed, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"Well, I was thinking..." Jordan's ears turned pink. "Maybe we could go together? Like, together-together."

Maya's brain short-circuited. This was it. The moment every rom-com had prepared her for, except in movies the main character didn't look like she'd lost a fight with a curling iron.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah." Jordan actually smiled, and Maya forgot how to breathe. "Unless that's weird. I can totally bare—"

"No!" Maya practically shouted. The table next to them glanced over. She lowered her voice. "I mean, no, it's not weird. I'd love to."

"Awesome." Jordan's relief was visible. "I've been wanting to ask you for, like, two months."

"Two months?" Maya's eyes went wide.

"Yeah, you're kind of oblivious."

"I am not!"

"Maya, you're literally wearing a winter hat in September."

She froze. Her hair. The disaster under the beanie.

"It's... a fashion statement?"

Jordan laughed. "You're ridiculous. But you're cute."

Maya's palms stopped sweating.

Then Jordan reached across the table and pointed at Maya's smile.

"You have, uh, green stuff in your teeth. Just so you know."

Maya died inside.

"That would be the spinach," she muttered, covering her mouth.

"Still cute," Jordan said, grinning.

Somehow, Maya believed them.