Three-Word Panic Attack

The spinach leaf stuck between my front teeth felt like a flashing neon sign announcing my loser status to the entire cafeteria. I'd spent forty minutes crafting the perfect 'casual' lunch routine—tucking hair behind my ear, laughing at exactly the right moments, making eye contact with Jason across the room—only to realize I'd been walking around with a giant green flag of social suicide all morning.

"You got something, Maya," Sarah whispered, sliding into the seat across from me. I flushed, digging my phone out to check my reflection. Yep. There it was. A glorious, vibrant shred of spinach, clearly visible from space.

This would be fine. This was totally fine. I just had to play it cool. Everyone had embarrassing moments, right? At least I wasn't like Tyler, who'd accidentally killed his sister's goldfish by feeding it taco sauce last week. Some fates were worse than temporary social death.

Then Jason started walking toward my table.

My heart did that annoying thing where it forgot how to function. Jason. The Jason. Who'd smiled at me yesterday in English like he actually saw me. Who was now definitely coming over to say something, and I was about to have a conversation with my mouth looking like a salad bar.

"Hey," he said, stopping at our table. "You left this in art class."

He held out my sketchbook—the one with the drawing of him I'd been secretly working on for three weeks. The one that was definitely NOT supposed to see the light of day until it was finished and perfect and possibly never seen by anyone ever.

"Oh," I managed. "Thanks."

"It's actually really good," he said, looking right at me. Spinach and all. "I mean, if that's supposed to be me. Which I'm guessing it is, since it says 'Jason' next to it."

Sarah choked on her juice.

"That's—that's not—" I stammered.

"It's cool," he said, grinning. "Anyway, I was gonna ask if you wanted to come to my party Friday? Everyone's gonna be there."

The cafeteria noise seemed to fade. Jason. Party. Friday. Me. While I had spinach in my teeth and he'd just seen my secret crush drawing and basically my entire soul laid bare on paper.

"I'd love to," I heard myself say.

"Awesome." He nodded at my sketchbook. "Keep working on that. It's got potential."

As he walked away, I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. My hands were shaking. My face was on fire. I was going to have to bear the humiliation of this moment for the rest of my life.

"Well," Sarah said, finally recovering from her juice-choking incident. "Could've gone worse."

I looked at my reflection one more time. The spinach was still there, bold and unashamed.

"Yeah," I said, finally reaching up to pluck it free. "I guess."

Friday couldn't come fast enough.