Things had suddenly gone from only mildly uncomfortable to off-the-charts awkward. Apart from glancing up once, for half a second, Maddie couldn’t force herself to meet Caitie’s gaze, which didn’t matter anyway since Caitie wasn’t looking at her either. She sucked on her bottom lip, trying to sort through what to say or do. Getting up and leaving probably would’ve been the easiest, cleanest solution, but… she didn’t really want to do that. Caitie was still her friend.
A friend who’d just admitted to having a crush on her. A girl.
Maddie swallowed. She hadn’t expected this. If anything, she’d expected Caitie to admit to having a crush on Nick, since they were closer in age and had been spending a lot of time together recently. That would’ve hurt, and Maddie would’ve been extra jealous, but it honestly wouldn’t have surprised her.
Caitie’s confession also made her feel a tad bit inferior. Here the younger girl was, expressing her feelings, and Maddie wasn’t even sure whether she wanted to reciprocate or deny them. She’d never considered herself relationship material, never really imagined herself hook up with anyone, and now here she was, being practically forced into dealing with it because her roommate liked her.
She winced guiltily when Caitie said she wasn’t a pervert. Phrased like that, Maddie understood how her question might’ve been hurtful, but at the same time, she felt a little betrayed. Lied to.
“Pretty much how I feel about you hanging out with Nick all the time,” Maddie said. She understood Caitie’s need to hang out with someone her own age, because she needed that, too, but it still wasn’t easy knowing that your friend was potentially having more fun with someone else than with you.
Maddie shrugged, her recent disagreement with George preventing her from defending the other girl too strongly. “She’s got an attitude problem sometimes, but then, so do I, I guess. And I don’t think she makes you look dumb on purpose…”
She scratched her head, still unwilling to meet her friend’s gaze. “I don’t really know what you want me to say. I’ve never… This has never come up before. I mean, not just with us, but with anyone…”