Spinach Between My Teeth

The vintage fedora was supposed to be my armor. I'd spent twenty minutes positioning it at just the right angle—carefully careless, you know? Like I didn't care what anyone thought, even though I cared way too much.

Maya pulled me through the door of Tyler's house. The bass hit my chest before I even crossed the threshold. 'You got this,' she said, squeezing my hand. Maya was that friend—the one who believed in you even when you absolutely didn't believe in yourself.

The kitchen counter was covered in those fancy party platters from Costco. I reached for what looked like a cheese ball, took a massive bite, and immediately knew I'd made a terrible mistake. It was spinach artichoke dip, but like, the chunky kind. And I had braces.

'You've got—' Maya started, then dissolved into laughter.

'Spinach. In my braces. Got it.' I tried to casually work it out with my tongue, which definitely didn't work. I could feel my face heating up like I'd been standing under one of those heat lamps at a buffet.

Then the lights flickered. Once. Twice.

Thunder shook the house, and suddenly everyone was rushing toward the windows. Lightning kept striking—these wild purple bolts that looked like something out of a movie. The storm had come out of nowhere, and the power was completely gone.

In the chaos of flashlights and phone lights, I forgot about the spinach. I forgot about the hat. I just ended up on the back porch with Tyler, watching the sky light up in these incredible bursts of violet and white.

'My mom says storms are just the atmosphere releasing tension,' Tyler said, like it was profound or something.

'That's actually deep,' I said, and then we both laughed because it wasn't deep at all, but somehow it was anyway.

I took off the hat. The wind caught my hair, and for the first time all night, I didn't think about how I looked or whether I was cool enough or whether there was spinach in my teeth.

'You know,' Tyler said, 'you're way more fun without the hat.'

I thought about lying and saying I wasn't trying to be anyone. But the truth was, I had been trying. And the storm, and the spinach disaster, and Tyler seeing me without my armor—that's what actually made the night real.

'Maybe I'll leave it off more often,' I said.

Another lightning bolt cracked the sky open, and this time, I didn't miss it at all.