Three Seconds of Spinach

I'd been **running** from my problems since seventh grade, but tonight they were catching up. Prom night. The night where every social insecurity you've ever had decides to show up fashionably late. I was drowning in this absolutely tragic green smoothie my health-nut mom insisted would give me "radiant energy" — spoiler alert, it just gave me **spinach** stuck in my braces.

Outside, the sky cracked open like something out of a movie. **Lightning** flashed across the parking lot, illuminating Jordan's perfect silhouette leaning against his car. Jordan, who I'd been lowkey crushing on for two years. Jordan, who was currently watching me have a full-on meltdown over something green wedged in my teeth.

"You good?" he called out, totally casual.

"Never been better," I lied, doing that finger-over-teeth thing that looks absolutely ridiculous. Then his friend Marcus shouted, "That's **bull**, Jordan! You said you'd give us a ride!" and suddenly Jordan wasn't looking at me anymore. He was caught between whatever moment we were having and his friends demanding his attention.

The parking lot lights flickered. Another lightning strike. Something in my brain just clicked — all that pressure to be perfect, to have the right date, to say the right things. I grabbed my phone and texted my best friend: 'Screw this. Let's go get actual food.'

Jordan turned back just as I was walking away. "Hey, Maya —"

"Catch you later," I said, grinning with my very green teeth. And for the first time in forever, I didn't care what anyone thought. The storm broke over us as I sprinted toward her car, running toward something real instead of away from everything fake.