Spinach Teeth & HDMI Cables

Maya's first house party. Everything was riding on this—Leo was gonna be there, and she'd been crushing on him since seventh period English. She'd spent two hours on her hair, strategically messy curls that said 'I woke up like this' but actually meant 'I fought a curling iron and barely survived.' Her palms were sweating so much she could practically water plants with them.

''You good?'' Jax asked, handing her a red Solo cup.

''Just nervous,'' she admitted, wiping her palms on her jeans. ''What if I say something weird? What if I—''

''Bro, you're overthinking it.'' Jax gestured toward the snack table. ''Hit up the spinach dip. It's a whole mood.''

The dip was legendary. Someone's aunt made it, and it was basically edible gold. Maya scooped some onto a plate, turned around, and literally crashed into Leo.

''Oh! Sorry!'' she said, spinach dip sloshing onto both their shoes. Great start.

Leo laughed. ''No worries, I'm clumsy af.'' He had this crooked smile that made her stomach do flips. ''I'm Leo.''

''Maya.''

They ended up talking for twenty minutes about everything—his failed band attempts, her weird obsession with vintage cameras, how both their parents were going through their midlife crises. It was flowing. It was perfect. Until Tyler's voice boomed from across the room:

''Y'all, the Netflix isn't working! Someone fix the cable!''

Leo groaned. ''I got this. I'm basically tech support.''

He started messing with the HDMI cords behind the TV, and Maya stood there awkwardly until Jax caught her eye and mouthed something frantically while pointing at his own teeth.

She ducked into the bathroom and yep—massive chunk of spinach right between her front teeth. She'd been talking to Leo for twenty minutes with spinach in her teeth like a total gremlin.

She wanted to die.

When she came back out, Leo was still wrestling with cables. He looked up, saw her clean teeth, and just said, ''Much better.'' He winked. ''I was gonna say something but that seemed rude.''

''You noticed?'' she practically hissed.

''I mean, yeah.'' He shrugged. ''But I also have spinach on my shirt, so we're even.''

She looked down—sure enough, a green smear on his black tee.

They stood there laughing like idiots while Tyler yelled about the bear of a TV setup that refused to cooperate. And Maya realized that maybe, just maybe, real life was better than the perfect version she'd scripted in her head.