The Spinach Incident

I knew showing up to Maya's party was going to be a mistake. My palms were already sweating before I even walked through the door, and I could feel my heart doing that weird fluttery thing it does whenever I'm nervous. Which was always.

The living room was packed with juniors I'd been going to school with since kindergarten but had never actually spoken to. Someone's phone was blasting that new song everyone's obsessed with, and the air smelled like cheap body spray and desperation.

I spotted Maya across the room, laughing with her friends like she didn't have a care in the world. That's when I felt like a total spy, watching from the sidelines while everyone else seemed to know exactly what they were doing.

My mom had forced me to eat that 'healthy' dinner before I left — something with way too much spinach — and now my stomach was doing backflips. I made a beeline for the kitchen to find some water, anything to calm down the chaos happening in my body.

That's when I saw him. Tyler. The guy I'd been lowkey crushing on since seventh grade, even though he had no idea I existed. He was leaning against the counter, looking annoyingly perfect in his flannel shirt.

'Hey,' he said, like we were old friends or something. 'Having fun?'

I opened my mouth to respond, maybe something cool and casual, but what came out was more like a weird squeak. I could feel my face burning hotter than that time I forgot my gym clothes and had to sit out volleyball in my jeans.

Tyler's eyes went wide, and I saw him trying desperately not to laugh. 'You've got...' He gestured at his own teeth.

Oh my god. The spinach. I literally had spinach stuck in my teeth from dinner.

I grabbed a water bottle from the counter and basically chugged the whole thing, rinsing my mouth out like my life depended on it. When I finally looked up, Tyler was still watching me, but he wasn't laughing anymore.

'You know,' he said, 'that was actually pretty impressive how fast you handled that. Most people would've just died right there.'

I shrugged, trying to play it cool even though my palms were still sweating. 'When you've got as much awkward in you as I do, you learn to recover fast.'

He smiled, and for the first time all night, I didn't feel like a spy watching from the outside. I felt like maybe, just maybe, I was exactly where I was supposed to be.