The Spinach Incident

Maya's iPhone buzzed in her pocket like a nervous heartbeat. House party. Tonight. The text from Jordan made her stomach do backflips.

"You got this," Jordan said, meeting her at the door. "Just chill. It's not like it's the prom or anything."

Jordan was her best friend, the kind who'd text her at 2 AM about existential crises and show up with boba when Maya's crush ghosted her. But Jordan actually enjoyed parties. Maya? Maya's idea of a good time was binge-watching Netflix with her cat.

Inside, the bass thumped against Maya's ribs. She clutched her iPhone like a lifeline, scrolling through absolutely nothing just to look busy. Someone offered her a spinach artichoke dip.

"Thanks," she said, reaching for a chip.

And that's when it happened. The crush walked in. Caleb. Baseball cap, varsity jacket, that smile that made her brain short-circuit. Maya panicked, shoving a entire chip loaded with spinach into her mouth.

"Hey Maya," Caleb said, coming over. "What's up?"

She couldn't answer. Her mouth was full. She tried to smile, to nod, to look cool.

Caleb grinned. "You got a little..." He pointed to his teeth.

Spinach. Everywhere.

Maya's soul left her body.

"Dude, are you serious?" Jordan appeared out of nowhere, inspecting her phone. "The bear sighting update? Some guy posted a video of a bear running through the Target parking lot. It's going viral."

"What?" Maya asked, finally managing to swallow.

"Yeah, it's wild. But you—" Jordan paused, finally noticing the spinach situation. "Oh my god. Maya, your teeth."

"I know," Maya whispered.

But then Caleb started laughing. Not mean laughing. Real laughing.

"That's actually hilarious," he said. "Last week at Chipotle, I had salsa all over my face and didn't know until I got home. My little brother asked if I'd been in a food fight."

Maya relaxed. Just a little.

"That's bull," someone called from across the room. "No way there's an actual bear."

Jordan held up her iPhone. "Want to see the video?"

Suddenly, everyone was gathered around, watching the bear video. Maya found herself next to Caleb, and they ended up talking about actual bears versus "bearing it" at parties, and how high school was basically a jungle anyway.

Later, Maya's iPhone buzzed again. A text from Caleb: That spinach moment? kinda made my night. u got any other party tricks?

Maya smiled. Maybe parties weren't so terrible after all.