Page 80 of Cross + Catherine: The Companion

“A guy I don’t even like called me ugly,” Cece muttered.

She kept her gaze on her hands instead of her brother.

“He wanted me to send him a picture, and I wouldn’t, so he called me ugly.”

“A picture?” Naz made a noise in the back of his throat. “What’s he need a picture of?”

Cece glanced up, and gave her brother a look. “You’re really smart, but sometimes, Naz, you’re also kind of clueless.”

“Hey!”

“What kind of picture, Naz, really?”

Naz looked upwards, and made a face. “Oh, like a bad one? Like … a naked one?”

“Basically, yeah.”

She knew better than to be sending pictures of herself like that to anybody. For one, because it was wrong. And for two, her father and mother would kill her if they ever found out.

“And he called you ugly?” Naz asked. “Just because of that?”

“It’s not that he called me ugly—that’s not why I am upset.”

And she knew she wasn’t ugly, either. She took after her mother, and Ma was the most beautiful woman Cece knew.

“It just … sucked,” Cece said lamely. “He had to seem cool, or whatever, when I told him, so he tried to hurt me, I guess. Like I said, that just sucks, and it’s stu—”

“Not stupid,” Naz interjected. “I’m sorry the guy’s a jerk.”

Cece smiled. “Make sure you never make girls cry, Naz.”

Naz nodded. “Promise. By the way …”

“Yeah?”

“Who was the guy?”

Naz POV

“Hey, Zeke?”

“Yeah, principe?”

His father’s best friend and right-hand man was the one tasked with driving Naz to school today. Sometimes it was an enforcer if everybody else was busy for whatever reason. More often than not, it was his mother or father.

But his dad had business in Hell’s Kitchen, and his mom had to fly out to California over the weekend.

So that left Zeke.

Naz liked Zeke.

“Do you gotta knife, or something?” Naz asked.

Zeke side-eyed him from the driver’s seat. “What in the fuck do you need a knife for?”

“Just because.”

“Naz.”