Palms and Promises

My palms were sweating so much I could barely grip the railing. This was it—the moment I'd been obsessing over all summer. Tyler from cross country was finally going to notice me.

"Hey, you're Mira, right? The girl who's always running?"

I nodded, trying to look chill while internally screaming. Tyler Nguyen. Actually talking to me. At the pool party where everyone who mattered was hanging out.

"Yeah, I run track," I managed, my voice doing this weird squeak thing.

"That's awesome. I saw your times from last season. You're fast." He smiled, and my brain short-circuited. "Hey, you want some smoothie? My mom makes this massive bowl every party."

Smoothies. This was my chance. All summer I'd been on this health kick, trying to become the kind of girl Tyler would date. No more junk food, no more staying up until 3am playing video games. I was practically a different person.

"Love smoothies," I said, following him to the kitchen where this giant green monstrosity sat in a punch bowl.

"It's got kale, spinach, banana, and this vitamin powder my mom swears by," Tyler explained, ladling some into a cup. "Tastes way better than it looks."

Spinach. I could handle spinach. I was basically a health guru now.

I took a gulp and immediately regretted everything. It tasted like a lawn mower went rogue in a fruit stand. But Tyler was watching, so I smiled and said, "Actually really good!"

"Right?" His eyes lit up. "You know, you're cool. Most people make this grossed-out face."

We talked for twenty minutes about running and music and somehow ended up on the topic of his palm—"I broke it last season falling off my skateboard," he said, showing me this tiny scar I could barely see. His hand was so close to mine I could feel the heat radiating off it.

Then the unthinkable happened. Jenna from the volleyball team walked in, looking like she'd just stepped out of a TikTok tutorial. Tyler's face did this complete 180.

"Jenna!" He practically ran over to her. "You made it!"

I stood there with my half-finished spinach smoothie feeling like the world's biggest idiot. All that work reinventing myself, and I was still the backup friend.

But then something weird happened. I looked at the green sludge in my cup and realized—I didn't even like smoothies. Or pretending to be someone I wasn't.

"Hey Tyler," I called out, walking over. "This smoothie is actually gross."

Jenna made a face. "Thank you! I was trying to be polite."

"And I'd rather play Mario Kart until 3am than pretend to be a health nut," I said, and for some reason, all three of us started laughing.

Maybe that was the real vitamin all along—not trying so hard to be perfect.

"Mario Kart sounds way better than this party," Tyler said. "My Nintendo's still hooked up."

So that's how I ended my summer of pretending: sitting on Tyler's bedroom floor, absolutely crushing him at Rainbow Road, spinach smoothie long forgotten. Sometimes the best version of yourself is the one you stopped trying to hide.