Cute Teen Love Instant

“Can it be both?” he asked.

Ella snorted. “I’m five-foot-two.”

He winced, then smiled—just a little. “Since September. You use a purple pen. It’s hard to miss.”

Leo unfolded it. In purple ink, she’d written: “Tomorrow. Lunch. Bring your own book. — E.” cute teen love

Ella should have been creeped out. Instead, she felt a fizzy, nervous laugh bubble up. “That’s either really sweet or really weird.”

On it, in messy, slanted handwriting: “You underline the same passages I do. And you always bite your lip when you’re confused. — L.”

She sat down across from him. “Why didn’t you just talk to me?” “Can it be both

She scanned the library. Only three other people were there: a freshman sleeping on a desk, the librarian sorting returns, and Leo Chen. He had his nose buried in a graphic novel, but his ears were pink. Very pink.

Leo shrugged, sliding the note back toward her. “I tried once. You were explaining the Treaty of Versailles to your friend and you said ‘reparations’ like you really meant it. I got intimidated.”

She was hiding in her favorite corner of the school library—a dusty nook behind the geography section—trying to finish an essay on the French Revolution. That’s when she found it: a folded piece of paper tucked inside her copy of A Tale of Two Cities . “Since September

She marched over and slid the note onto his table. “L?” she whispered.

“And fierce,” he said. Then he quickly looked down at his book.