Through Thick and Thin

10

Miranda walked home, and tears were clouding her eyes. She opened the door and walked straight to the stairs.

"Miranda, are you crying? What's wrong?"Elena asked quickly.

"I'm fine," she returned, walking up to her room.

She walked immediately to her window and shut it before lowering her blinds. She closed them and then closed her curtains.

Flopping on her bed, she began to cry even harder. Needing to get her emotions out.

Ben walked to his car, still holding Miranda's necklace. He rubbed his hand back and forth across it, and he felt tears of frustration pooling.

He wasn't that way. He wasn't like any of those guys. He would never take advantage of her. He would never have sex with her and then treat her like garbage. He didn't realize he even did that. He just wanted her and was trying to stick by not ruining their friendship.

He loved Miranda so much, and he couldn't lose her, but it seemed like that was what he did.

He felt horrible, like the earth could swallow him whole.

"Miranda," Elena said softly, knocking on the door before opening it.

"Yes, ma," Miranda said, lifting her head off of the pillow.

Elena came in and sat on the edge of her bed. "Judging from the closed window, you and Ben have got into a fight,"

"Yeah, we did, and we are not going to be friends anymore. I can't be his friend."

"You can't be his friend because you want to be more than his friend," Elena whispered.

"What?" Miranda gasped, sitting up in the bed.

"You're in love with Ben Warren,"

Miranda felt her tears welding in her eyes. "You can tell?" She asked her mother.

"Yes, I actually put it together this summer. Something changed between you two," Elena responded.

Miranda blushed, looking down so her mother wouldn't see her face. She couldn't tell her mother what the change was and prayed to God she didn't know what it was either.

"You were silent with him for that whole week after we came back from out of town. Then, when you all began speaking again. I paid attention to how you looked at him. You look at Ben as if he'd put the sun in the sky in the morning and the moon and stars in the sky at night."

Listening to her mom, she felt so embarrassed. "I knew forsure on your birthday,"

"Huh? Why? How?"

I looked out the window and saw you two hugging. He lifted you into his arms, and you wrapped your legs around his waist. All while having a dress on," Elena laughed softly.

"Mommy, if you can see it, then why don't he. It's like he doesn't want to see it because he doesn't want it to be real. He doesn't want to be with me."

"Mandy, Ben loves you, and he has for a very long time. We could see standing in a room filled with over 400 people, and if you were across the room, we would know his heart belongs to you. I think it's just taking him a while to sort through platonic versus romantic."

"Well, he doesn't even have to worry about it again. Our friend ship is through."

"Are you sure, I say just rest on it and pray about it." Elena encouraged rubbing her back.

Ben arrived home, and he parked. He went upstairs to his room and looked out of the window. He sighed, his heart aching.

Miranda ignored Ben for the rest of the week. She didn't even eat in the cafeteria because she didn't want to see his face.