Page 71 of Cross + Catherine: The Companion

Screw it.

Cece grabbed her earbuds for her tablet, and shoved them in. If she couldn’t force herself to ignore them, then she would just drown their conversation out with loud music. She refused to even look in their direction after that.

Childish?

Maybe a bit.

It was better than her going over there to try and rip the girl’s blonde hair out of her head. Besides, she didn’t think Juan would like that very much.

Especially if he liked the girl.

Crap.

What if he did actually like her?

That kind of made Cece’s heart hurt.

This crush thing sucked.

All of the sudden, the sounds of the pool filled Cece’s ears as her earbuds were tugged away. A shadow darkened over her form as Juan came to stand next to her reclining lounger.

“Hey,” he said.

Cece tried not to frown. “Hey. I guess you’re going to hang out with your new friend, huh?”

Juan’s brow dipped. “No way, Cece.”

Her heart perked.

Stupid, traitorous heart.

“No?” she dared to ask.

He grinned. “Nope—today’s all for you. I promised.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“You okay?”

Cece glanced over at where the girl had rejoined her friends. “I am now.”

Juan nodded. “Huh.”

“What?”

“You look like you smelled something bad.”

Cece shrugged. “No, I just—”

“I didn’t mean to make you jealous.”

Her first instinct was to deny his words—she didn’t want him to know she liked him that way, partly. Another part of her did want him to know exactly that.

This teenaged girl thing was hard.

The way Juan looked at her made Cece stop and think before she said anything at all. She thought about her mom, too, and what Catherine always told her.

Petty girls made scenes.