Smashed Phone & Spinach Teeth

Maya's new iPhone 15 Pro lay face down on the padel court,屏幕 splintered into a spiderweb of doom. Her stomach dropped harder than when she'd flubbed that presentation in homeroom yesterday.

"No fricking way," Jake breathed from the other side of the net, his paddle still raised from the winning shot. "That's gonna cost you, sorry."

It was supposed to be casual. Jake had invited her to play padel at the rec center, just the two of them. No big deal, except she'd been lowkey obsessed with him since September, and now she was going to spend the entire match apologizing for her clumsiness.

What made it worse: the spinach smoothie she'd chugged for breakfast because her mom said it'd "help with focus" during finals week. A piece of green something was definitely stuck between her front teeth. She could feel it.

"It's fine," she lied, scooping up her phone and pretending her life wasn't over. "My brother dropped his twice last month. Screen protector took one for the team. Except she didn't have a screen protector.

Jake's expression softened. "Hey, my dad used to have this saying when I messed up—about how the bear doesn't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep. Cheesy dad stuff, but..."

"Your dad quotes motivational posters at you?" Maya grinned, forgetting about the spinach situation for a second.

"Only when I'm being too hard on myself." Jake leaned against the net, suddenly looking less like the varsity basketball god and more like... a person. "Wanna finish the set? I promise not to smash any more balls near your phone."

Something shifted. Maybe it was the bear nonsense, or the way he'd remembered her screen was cracked when he barely looked at it, or the fact that he'd just said "my dad" with that rare I'll-tell-you-something-real tone teenagers only dropped when they actually trusted someone.

Maya checked her teeth with her tongue. The spinach was still there. Whatever.

"You're going down," she said, and meant it.

Maybe having a smashed phone wasn't the worst thing. It gave Jake a reason to text her later to check in. She'd just make sure to floss first.