Palm Sweat & Spinach Teeth

Maya's palms were sweating so much she could practically water plants with them. Which was ironic, because the only plants she cared about were the imaginary ones she definitely wasn't hiding behind in the corner of Jackson's party.

"You look like a zombie," said Priya, sliding up with that effortless grace that made Maya want to scream. "Did you actually eat dinner, or are you running on anxiety and Sprite?"

Maya made a face. "I had spinach. Lots of it. Mom's doing this health kick phase where everything tastes like sadness and chlorophyll."

"Wait." Priya's eyes went wide. "Spinach? Like, is there—" She gestured at her own teeth.

Maya's hands flew to her mouth. "No. Absolutely not. Tell me there's nothing in my teeth."

"You're good." Priya laughed. "But your hair is doing that thing again."

"What thing?" Maya's palms went into overdrive. She smoothed her frizz for the millionth time.

"The thing where it's perfect but you think it's not." Priya rolled her eyes. "Marcus has been staring at you for twenty minutes, by the way."

Marcus. THE Marcus. Who had that smile that made girls forget their own names and hair that fell perfectly even when he'd just rolled out of bed. The same Marcus who'd somehow ended up sitting by her in third period Spanish, asking to borrow a pen every single day like he couldn't afford his own.

Maya peeked across the room. Sure enough, he was there, leaning against the doorframe like he owned the place. Their eyes caught. He lifted his cup in a tiny salute.

"Go talk to him," Priya pushed.

"I can't. I'll say something weird. I'll literally turn into a zombie, just walking back and forth saying 'hola' over and over until someone calls an exorcist."

"Maya." Priya grabbed her shoulders. "You're overthinking this. Just go over there. If it goes wrong, I'll distract everyone by setting off the fire alarm."

"That is NOT reassuring—"

"MAYA." Marcus materialized in front of them, and Maya's brain officially exited the chat. Up close, she could see the tiny freckles across his nose and how his eyelashes did that curl thing and suddenly she couldn't remember how words worked.

"Hey," he said. "I, uh—" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I was gonna get food. There's this spinach dip thing. You wanna?"

Maya's palms went nuclear. Spinach. After she'd just obsessed about not having spinach in her teeth. The universe was definitely pranking her.

"I'd love that," she heard herself say.

"Cool." He smiled. And for the first time all night, Maya didn't feel like a zombie at all. She felt like a person whose palms were still disgustingly sweaty, but who was maybe, possibly, about to have her first real conversation with Marcus.

She turned to Priya with wide eyes. Priya gave her a thumbs-up.

"Don't forget to check your teeth," Priya mouthed.

Maya flipped her off and followed Marcus toward the spinach dip, heart hammering, palms sweating, feeling terrifyingly, wonderfully alive.