The Green Between My Teeth

Summer before sophomore year, I decided I needed a glow-up. You know the type — the ones in TikTok compilations where the awkward girl with braces comes back from vacation looking like a whole different person. My plan involved running every morning at 6 AM because Pinterest said it would "clear my mind" (it didn't) and eating actual vegetables instead of just Crumbl cookies.

The first week, I'm already regretting everything. It's me, my dog Buster (a chunky French bulldog who would rather nap than jog), and the humid July air. We're doing this sad, pathetic shuffle down the street when I see HIM — Lucas, the junior who plays guitar and wears vintage band tees and somehow makes it work. He's actually running, like a normal athletic person, while I'm over here hyperventilating and Buster has already given up and is lying in someone's grass.

"Need some water?" Lucas calls out, jogging over with this easy confidence I didn't know existed outside of movies. "You look like you're dying."

I definitely did not look cool. My hair was frizzed out, my face was the color of a tomato, and I was pretty sure I had sweat through my t-shirt. But Lucas handed me a water bottle from his backpack and sat with me while Buster dramatically panted like he'd just run a marathon.

We talked for twenty minutes about music and how much we both hated morning exercise (turns out he was only doing it because his mom made him). When he finally got up to leave, he smiled and said, "See you around, Spinach Girl."

I didn't understand until I got home and looked in the mirror. There was, unmistakably, a massive piece of spinach wedged between my front teeth. I had eaten a spinach smoothie for breakfast, and apparently, none of it had actually gone down my throat.

I wanted to die. I wanted to move to Antarctica and change my name. But then my phone buzzed — Lucas had found me on Instagram. The message read: "You still have spinach in your teeth, just so you know. But you're funny, so we're cool."

That fall, Lucas and I became the kind of friends who share headphones in the hallway and roast each other's Spotify playlists. And I learned something important about glow-ups: sometimes the most embarrassing moments — the ones that make you want to disappear — end up being the ones that actually change everything. Also, always check your teeth after eating spinach.