Page 21 of Cross + Catherine: The Companion

Catrina pursed her lips. “Okay.”

“What else?”

“Did you feel pressured—before, now … anytime?”

“No,” Catherine rushed to say. “Never.”

“How often do you feel a need to be intimate in a place like school?”

Yep …

There it was.

Catherine knew it was coming.

All over again, her face reddened.

“That was the first time,” she admitted.

“I take it you understand—”

“How stupid it was? Yeah, I got that, Ma.”

“I bet.” Catrina sighed, adding, “but I was going to say, I take it you understand how irresponsible it was.”

“That, too.”

Catrina tossed the magazine aside. “See, sex can be wonderful, Catherine. And no one should ever make you feel ashamed or put down because you enjoy sex. Whether some of us in this house like to admit it or not, you’re just like every other human coming into adulthood. You feel the same things—need and want the same things. Some of those things are intimate and physical in nature. You may not be at an age where it’s easier to accept what you do, but pretending that you don’t do them certainly won’t help.”

“Daddy’s very angry at me.”

“Yes, he is.” Catrina shrugged, and said, “Truth be told, at first it was probably the shock of realizing his daughter isn’t the same little girl who used to refuse to wear anything but a tutu. After that shock wore off, his anger changed direction, and now it’s what you did, and where you did it.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“He’s due his anger, Catherine. You have to understand why he has it.”

Catherine chewed on her inner cheek before asking, “And what about you, Ma?”

“Hmm?”

“The anger he has with you for not telling him that you thought I was having sex, or for putting me on birth control without talking to him about it. Do you understand why he’s angry?”

Catrina smiled. “I understand—I don’t agree. Therein lies the difference between our circumstances with your father at the moment. You were in the wrong. He only thinks I was in the wrong.”

“Don’t you think he might not have been so angry or shocked had you talked to him about … me and sex?”

“Probably.”

“But you still think—”

“That he needs to climb down from his high horse, or I will knock him down from it, yes.”

Perfect.

Catherine could already tell it was going to be difficult to live in her house for the unforeseeable future. Definitely not fun, all things considered. Her parents were two of the most stubborn people she knew, and neither one of them backed down from a fight.

She didn’t want to be the reason they were fighting.