SpinachGate

Maya's palms were sweating — like, actually dripping — as she stood against the kitchen counter at Tyler's party. The bass from the living room thrummed through her chest, but her hair wasn't cooperating. She'd spent forty-five minutes trying to perfect those effortless waves, and now they just looked...

effortless in the wrong way. Like she'd rolled out of bed and given up.

"You good?" Chloe appeared beside her, holding a red solo cup like it was a royal scepter. Chloe, who had somehow managed to be friends with literally everyone since freshman year, who moved through social situations like they were physics equations she'd already solved.

"My hair looks like a bird nested in it, then died," Maya muttered. "And Tyler's been giving me weird looks all night."

Chloe gasped. "He looked at you? That's literally progress! Last month he didn't even know you existed."

"Chloe, he looked at me like I had something on my face."

"Well," Chloe said, suddenly very interested in her fingernails. "About that..."

Maya's stomach dropped. "What."

"Remember that spinach dip from earlier? The really good one with the artichokes?"

The realization hit Maya like a freight train made of pure social death. She'd been smiling at Tyler from across the room for twenty minutes. Twenty. Whole. Minutes. With green stuff stuck in her teeth.

"And you didn't tell me?!" Maya whisper-yelled. "I thought we were friends!"

"I didn't want to embarrass you!" Chloe protested. "I was trying to find a subtle way to —"

"Subtle?!" Maya groaned, covering her face with both hands. "Everyone probably saw. I'm gonna be a meme by Monday. Spinach Girl 2024. They'll call me Popeye forever."

Just then, Tyler materialized next to them. Maya froze. Her palms were somehow sweating more than before.

"Hey," he said. "I, uh, noticed you had some —"

"Spinach," Maya said miserably. "I know. I'm dying inside."

Tyler laughed. Actually laughed. "Honestly? I was gonna tell you, but it was kind of cute how you were smiling so big at everyone. Like you were genuinely having a good time." He paused. "Also, I'm pretty sure I have some in my teeth too, so."

He flashed his teeth, and yep. Bright green spinach right in the front.

"Oh my god," Maya started laughing, actual relief flooding through her. "We're a disaster."

"Match made in heaven," Tyler grinned. "Wanna go get some napkins? Together? Like, as in both of us simultaneously removing spinach from our teeth in coordinated solidarity?"

"That's the worst pick-up line I've ever heard," Maya said, but she was already following him toward the bathroom.

"Working though, wasn't it?"

"Don't push it, Spinach Boy."

Chloe watched them go, pulling out her phone to group chat the whole saga to their other friends because some stories were too good not to document. Maya was going to kill her later, but honestly? Worth it.