Spinach Between My Teeth

I've been crushing on Maya since seventh grade, and tonight at Jake's party, I was finally gonna make my move. I spent twenty minutes styling my hair, practiced my cool face in the mirror like five times. I was ready.

Then came the spinach incident.

I'd been hovering by the snack bowls, trying to look casual but not desperate, when Jake's golden retriever, Buster, came barreling through the sliding glass door. Someone had left it open, and apparently there was a squirrel outside. Buster knocked into me, and I stumbled backward — directly into the spinach dip.

Green. Everywhere. All over my favorite black hoodie.

"Dude, you look like a lettuce garden exploded on you," Marcus said, failing to suppress a laugh. Maya was standing right there. She cracked the tiniest smile, and I felt my face heat up like I'd been standing too close to a bonfire.

I rushed to the bathroom, frantically trying to scrub it out. The reflection showed me looking like a hot mess. And then I saw it — spinach wedged between my front teeth. How long had that been there? Had Maya seen it? I wanted to evaporate.

Just then, lightning flashed through the bathroom window, illuminating my humiliation in strobe-light clarity. Thunder shook the house. Perfect.

I washed my face and leaned against the sink, palms sweating, wondering if I could just sneak out the bathroom window and walk home. But then someone knocked.

"You decent?" It was Maya.

"Yeah," I managed, my voice cracking slightly. Great.

She slipped inside, closing the door. "Buster got out again. We're all going outside to look for him. You coming?"

"You want me to help? After the spinach disaster?"

She laughed. "Actually, I thought it was kinda cute. Not many people can rock the vegetable look."

I grinned, then remembered to check my teeth first. "Clear. Let's go find Buster."

We spent the next hour searching the neighborhood in the rain, calling for the dog. We found him eventually — chasing a fox through the Jenkins' backyard. The fox perched on their fence, watching us with this judgmental stare like we were the weird ones.

By the time we got back to Jake's, everyone had either left or fallen asleep. Maya and I sat on the back porch, soaking wet and shivering but somehow not caring.

"So," she said, bumping my shoulder with hers. "You still gonna ask me to homecoming, or are you waiting for another vegetable-related incident?"