Chapter Eleven
CeCe
I sat on the couch and opened a binder when my phone buzzed.
I shook my head and texted him back.
He responded a second later.
I rolled my eyes.
Before he could respond my phone was snatched out of my fingers by Tuba. I scrambled after her.
“Give it, Tuba. Don’t make me hurt you.”
She swatted her hand in my direction like I had all the intimidation of a housefly.
“Who were you texting?” she asked and looked down at the screen.
I winced and waited for it.
“Emmett Brady?!” she screamed. “You have his phone number?” She looked at me like I deserved to be knighted.
I reached for my phone again but Tuba pulled it away and scrolled up the screen.
“You’re meeting up with him?” she noted, raising her eyebrows.
I tried to pry the phone out of her hands. She had amazingly strong finger muscles. I had to dig my nails into her flesh to make her let go.
“Ow” She flinched and let go.
“It’s a study date,” I said. “Nothing says romance like outlining a discussion guide.”
“Tell him to come over here!” Tuba squealed.
“Why? So you can awkwardly stare at him the whole time? Forget it.”
“Where are you meeting?” she asked.
“The Music Room,” I said.
Tuba’s face fell. “Why are you taking him to your weird, hipster dive coffee shop?” she asked. “Emmett’s going to hate it.”
“They play classical music,” I informed her.
“Elevator jazz? It’s shit,” Tuba said.
“I don’t think Schubert and shit can be used in the same sentence,” I argued.
Tuba shrugged. “I stopped going there when it became home to the Edgelake Recreational Chess Tournament,” she stated.
“A couple of my friends from class were in that tournament,” I said. “They can get pretty heated.”
Tuba patted the top of my head affectionately. “CeCe, don’t go completely weird on me. If you feel like you’re going over to the dark side, I’ll save you and take you somewhere cool.”
I stared up at her and smiled. Weird is the new pretty, I wanted to say.