Chapter Twenty-Six: Combat:

It got worse when I got home. I got up to my room and saw Miranda glaring at me as she sat on my bed.

“I saw you with him,” she said. I gave her a strange as I closed the door behind me.

“With who?” I asked.

“Don’t lie to me,” she growled. “I saw him!”

“What about it?”

“I do not like him.”

“Why though?”

“Don’t ask questions!”

“What is the matter with you? Are you mad because I ignored you? It wasn’t my fault.”

“Liar!” Miranda picked up my vase of lilies and threw it at my head. Crash! I was lucky to have ducked in time. Water and flowers hit the brown carpet.

“What’s gotten into you?!” I cried. Her face looked bright red.

“Stay away from Joe!” she screamed.

“But he didn’t do anything!” I yelled. This time, she threw a pillow at me. I ducked and rolled away to my right.

“Stop!” I cried.

“You!” Miranda screamed. She jumped forward and tackled me. Her hands grabbed at my shirt. I tried to push her off. My “friend” didn’t want to let go. She started wailing on me with her fists. I tried to push her off.

“What the hell?! What are you doing?! Why are you doing this?! Miranda! Stop it! Stop it!” I screamed. She pounded on me harder.

“Bitch! Fuck you! Fuck you Fuck you! Fuck you!” she screamed as she grabbed my hair. “You would be nothing without me!” I tried to block and push her off. I had never seen her this angry before in my life. What brought this on? Was it because I talked to Joe? What did she have against him?

“I don’t understand you!” I cried. “Why do you hate him do much?! He wasn’t even being mean to me! We were just talking!” I managed to push Miranda off and crawl to the door. She grabbed me by my hair as I tried to turn the knob. I screamed as I held on.

“Let me go! Let me go!” I yelled.

“You will not walk away from me!” Miranda howled. “I own you!”

“No! No!” I cried with tears in my eyes.

“Kinsey?” I asked my grandma asked in the hallway. “Kinsey, are you okay in there? Kinsey? Kinsey?” She tried to open the door. “Kinsey, can you please let me in? Kinsey? Kinsey?” By then, Miranda let go of my hair. I opened the door, panting with tears in my eyes. Grandma backed up with her hand over her mouth.

“Sweetie, what happened to you?” she asked. I broke down weeping as I collapsed into her arms. She put her hand on my head.

“It was Miranda!” I wailed. “She did this to me. I don’t know why she’s so mad at me. All I did was talk to him. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? What did I do? Why is she angry at me?” The more I spoke, the more tears ran down my cheeks. My voice became choked up in sobs.

“Shhh, shhh,” she whispered. “It’s going to be okay.” I wished that I could believe her in that moment. Only, I knew that it was going to get so much worse.