Spinach in Your Smile

Maya's palm was sweating against her phone case. LIKE. STATUS. WAITING.

Three little bubbles appeared, disappeared, appeared again. Leo was typing.

The cafeteria buzz around her—Ashley and her squad at their usual table, Kevin failing to be quiet while eating his sandwich, someone's weird orange backpack abandoned on a chair. Maya sat alone, heart hammering like she'd just sprinted to school.

"Hey."

Maya nearly jumped. Sam slid into the seat across from her, eyebrow raised. "You look like you're waiting for your cat to die."

"Ha ha." Maya locked her phone, face burning. "I'm fine."

"You're sweating." Sam pointed at her hand. "Your palm is literally glistening."

Whatever. Sam didn't get it. Sam was naturally chill, while Maya overthought everything into a tangled mess. Last night, Maya had finally sent that text to Leo—the cute junior from her English class who'd smiled at her THREE TIMES last week. And now. The. Waiting.

Sam sighed. "You want my advice?"

"Not really."

"Be confident, or fake it. Boys literally cannot tell the difference."

Maya's phone vibrated. Leo had replied.

She swiped it open so fast she almost dropped her phone.

*

The courtyard behind the school was basically empty when Leo found her. He had this confused puppy expression that made Maya's stomach do weird flip things.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey." Maya smoothed her shirt. Why was she smoothing her shirt? It was fine. Everything was fine. She was chill. She was a chill person who did chill things.

"So about your text..." Leo rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not trying to be weird, but—"

"It's cool if you're not into me," Maya blurted. "Like, no pressure. I just thought we could maybe hang out sometime, but if that's weird, I totally get it, I mean, we barely know each other, and—"

"Maya." Leo was looking at her with this soft expression that made her want to evaporate. "You have spinach in your teeth."

The world ended.

Like, actually, genuinely, the world ended right there in the courtyard behind Hamilton High.

Maya's palm flew to her mouth. "What?"

"Yeah, it's been there since lunch. I was trying to figure out how to tell you without being a jerk." Leo smiled, and it was this warm, genuine thing that made her chest feel light. "You're cute when you panic, though."

Maya's brain short-circuited. "I—what—"

"So, yes," Leo said. "To hanging out. But maybe rinse with water first? Just saying."

A cat meowed from somewhere nearby—probably Mrs. Gable's stray that lived behind the gym—and Maya started laughing. She couldn't stop. Leo laughed too, and somehow, impossibly, the orange sunset behind them made everything feel okay.

Maybe confidence wasn't about being perfect. Maybe it was about having spinach in your teeth and somehow still being the kind of person someone wanted to hang out with anyway.

Maya wiped her palm on her jeans and smiled. spinach and all.