Spinach Teeth and Thunder

Maya's palms were sweating. Like, actually sweating through the dollar store fingerless gloves she'd insisted on wearing because aesthetic.

"You good?" Jordan asked, popping up beside her with a red solo cup. "You look like you're about to barf."

"I'm chill," Maya lied, immediately checking her teeth in her phone camera. The spinach from the veggie tray at Jordan's party was definitely still there. It was always there. It was basically a permanent resident at this point.

A calico cat wound through her legs, nearly tripping her. This was the third time this particular cat had haunted her tonight. Maya was lowkey convinced it was judging her.

"That's Barnaby," Jordan said. "He's an icon."

"Cool. Very chill of him."

The basement was packed with people from school, everyone standing in their little cliques like the world's most awkward social experiment. Maya spotted her crush Alex across the room, laughing at something. Of course Alex was laughing. Alex always laughed. Alex had never once had spinach stuck in their teeth during a critical social moment. Some people just had main character energy, you know?

Outside, lightning flashed through the tiny window near the ceiling, illuminating everything in a quick white burst. Someone screamed, and then everyone laughed because that's what you do when you're sixteen and pretending not to be scared of anything.

"Truth or dare!" someone shouted, because of course.

Maya considered making a break for it, but then she was being pulled into the circle and this was fine, everything was fine, she could absolutely handle a middle school party game with her entire social circle watching her every move.

The bottle pointed at her.

"Truth," Maya said, because she was not about to do anything embarrassing in front of Alex. No thank you.

"What's something you've never told anyone?" asked Sarah, who Maya had literally never spoken to before in her life.

The cat jumped onto the couch behind her, like a sphinx guarding its secrets, staring with those judgmental cat eyes.

Maya thought about it. About the poetry notebook under her bed. About how she still slept with a stuffed animal. About how she had no idea who she was supposed to be or how to be it.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," Maya said. "Like, ever. I'm just making it up as I go."

The circle went quiet.

"Same," Alex said from across the circle. "That's literally just called being sixteen."

Maya exhaled. Maybe she wasn't the only one.

"Also," she added, "I have spinach in my teeth, don't I?"

"Yeah," Jordan said. "Since you got here."

Maya laughed. Whatever. She'd survive. Probably.