Stealth Mode and Spinach Teeth

I'd been running background intel on Chloe for six weeks. Not like a creepy spy or anything—just, you know, thorough social media reconnaissance. I knew her coffee order (oat milk latta, extra foam), her dog's name (Luna), and that she'd been bingeing that show about vampires everyone was obsessed with.

But actually talking to her? That was Mission: Impossible.

"Leo!" My mom's voice cut through my bedroom door. "Can you run to the store? We need spinach for salad."

"On it," I called back, grabbing my keys like I was off on some covert operation instead of a grocery run. Outside, lightning cracked the sky in half, thunder rolling like bass drop at a concert. Perfect weather for my mood.

I grabbed the spinach, some chips, maybe too many snacks for someone who was just running a quick errand. Then I saw her at the checkout counter—Chloe, counting exact change for a single energy bar.

My heart did this thing where it forgot how to heart. I turned to flee, but she caught my eye.

"Leo?" She smiled, and I felt my face catch on fire. "What's up?"

"Just... grocery stuff," I managed, holding up the spinach like it was evidence in a criminal investigation. "You know. Important matters."

She laughed. "Nice. I like how you go stealth mode. I've been seeing you around library, but you're always gone before I can say hi."

Wait—she'd noticed ME? The guy who specialized in not being noticed?

"Yeah, I..." I fumbled for words like my brain had short-circuited. "I'm pretty good at disappearing."

"Well don't," she said, paying for her energy bar. "I mean, you don't have to. Disappear, I mean. If you wanted to... I don't know, hang out? Study at the library together?"

Lightning flashed again through the store's windows, illuminating everything in this sudden, electric moment. I'd spent so long being the spy in someone else's story that I forgot I could be the main character in my own.

"Yeah," I said, hearing my own voice sound steadier than I felt. "I'd like that."

"Cool." She grinned. "Same time tomorrow? Library?"

"It's a date," I said, then immediately wanted to dissolve into the floor. "I mean—not a date. Unless...?"

Chloe laughed, actually laughed. "Let's start with studying and see what happens."

She walked out into the rain, and I stood there holding spinach like an idiot, but like... a happy idiot. The spy mission was over. Time to be part of the story instead of just watching it unfold.