Love, Anonymous

Well, it's been a couple of weeks now, Bens home, and Jeremys staying here with us, he runs over to his house every once and a while, to get clean clothes. And as awkward as it seems, seeing Jeremy, cook and clean, he does a pretty good job. Thats what he's been doing for weeks now. Cooking. Cleaning. Comforting.. Trying. I don't think that anything can really comfort me right now, but I appreciate the thought. Tomorrow we are having the funeral for my parents, I haven't been getting any sleep these past couple of weeks, it's still a shock, when I wake up every morning expecting to see my mom in the kitchen. But instead I see nothing. I usually cry hysterically. Sometimes I even visualize my mom in the kitchen, and my dad in the tool shed. That tends to make me cry even harder. I try my best not to cry in front of Ben, he gets very upset when he finds me crying.
I hear a knock on my door.
"Yeah, come in" I say in a strained voice. Angela walks in the door and stares at me for a moment. I jump up and throw my arms around her. We stand there like that for a few seconds then when I pull back a little, Angela notices the tears that are staining my eyes, she pulls me back into a comforting hug.
"Oh, Angela, i'm sorry I haven't called you lately" I say now once again pulling away from the hug.
"Oh, sweetie, thats alright, I understand that you need some personal time" She says in a sincere voice. I give her a half-hearted smile.
We end up sitting on my bed chatting about subjects ranging from the things i'm missing at school, to Angela's new niece, for hours on end, until the phone rings, I get up and walk towards the phone sitting on my desk.
"Hello?" I say in a voice that is so cheer-ful that it even surprised me.
"Uh, Hello is this Miranda?" The manly voice coming from the phone asks.
"Um, yes this is her"
"Hi, this is your Uncle Jake, i'm pretty sure your father has never mentioned me" He says
"Um, no I don't think he ever did mention you"
"Yes, your father and I haven't spoken since your grandmother died" since there wasn't much to say to that he continued.
"I just called to tell you i'm so very sorry for your loss, your father was a great man, and your mother was a very nice lady."
"Thank you sir" I say
"And I also called to tell you about the plans your mother and father have planned for you"
"Excuse me? What 'plans' are you talking about?"
"Your parents had high expectations of you and your brother, and they had everything planned out just in case of an emergancy, such as this one"
"Okay, continue" I say
"Well in case of such a tragedy your parents have arranged a place for your brother to stay. Here with me and my wife, Carolyne" Still in shock she doesn't quite respond, then she gets confused by his sentence.
"Um, excuse me did you just say 'somewheres for my brother to stay'? Where did they expect me to live?"
"Well, thats where the high expectations came into the plan, they arranged for you to go to a private institute in Paris" He says
"What? A private institute in PARIS?" She says even more shocked now.
"Yes, darling I know this is a lot to take in all at once, so i'm going to let you go, so you can think about it, you are leaving for Paris in Semtember, so enjoy your last months of school, then enjoy your summer, I will be flying you and your brother out here with my Wife and I, then I will be driving you to the airport for your departure to Paris"
"Sweetie don't think of this as a bad thing, think of it as your parents knowing that you had great potential, this school is a very major school, to which only few families can get there children enroled in, oh and also I am going to call your grandfather, and you can live with him until september, okay sweetie, well I better let you go so I can try to get a hold of your grandfather" He says
"Wait, no thats okay Uncle Jake, Ben and I are completley content living here, actually we are more comfortable, my friend Jeremy is here helping us with housework and such, I think it would be best if we got to live our last months in our childhood house, thanks though, and thanks for letting me know, I will start thinking about it" I say in a doubtful, yet forced cheerful voice
"Oh, sweetie, are you sure thats the most logical thing to do?" He says in the caring fatherly-like way
"Yes, I honestly do" I say
"Well, alright if you insist, but please make sure your brother is taken care of well, and that he doesn't get into any trouble, oh and also darling, I think it's about time that you both start thinking about going back to school, good bye honey, love you very much, see you in september, if you ever need anything, just call me or your grandfather, your aunt, Carolyne or I are always willing to give you advice, or help with something"
"Yeah, okay thanks Uncle Jake, love you too, see you in September" I say, feeling the tears just behind my eyelids. I set the phone back on the reciever.
"Hey, whats the matter M?" She says looking worried
"That was my uncle, who I didn't even know I had, telling me that I have to go to a boarding school in Paris in September" I say a single tear flows from my left eye.
"What? Oh sweetie" She says also looking as if she may cry any moment.
"Yeah, according to him, my parents had this all planned out, I would have likely had to go to this school anyways, I guess they were putting off the telling me about it." Now tears are spilling over my eyelids.
"Oh it's okay, we'll make the best of the time we have left together" Says Angela standing up and raising her arms for a hug, she is now also pouring tears left and right. I run into her arms and we cry together like that eventually sitting on my bed, until Jeremy comes knocking on my door.
"Um, sorry to interupt but-" He pauses mid sentence noticing that we are both bawling.
"Miranda whats the matter?" He says gently, putting one hand on my shoulder, the other on Angela's. I am crying to hard to speak, so Angela does it for me.
"Oh Jeremy, Miranda's unknown Uncle called telling Miranda that by September she has to be ready to move to a private school in Paris, that her parents planned for her to go to once she was 18" She says, breathing hard as if that was the most complicated thing she has ever said in one sentence.
"What?" Jeremy says kneeling down to our bed sitting level, and wraps both his arms around us tightly. He gently pulls away, I give them the background story. After I finsh telling him about my uncle and my parents plans for me, he stands up with a solemn look on his face. It makes me want to start crying again. He must see a tear trickle down my cheek, because he changes he face almost instantly and his expression turns to it's usual gentle and caring shape.
"Hey, don't," he said in a gentle voice. "don't do that, you're crying."
"Sorry," I say. Angela hugs me tightly. We sit there awkwardly for a few minutes until Ben comes to my already-open bedroom door.
"Hey Miranda there's somebody-" He pauses mid-sentence "Hey, guys whats the matter?" He says moving his head glancing at each of us.
"Oh, nothing bud we can talk about it later kay?" I say
"Yup, yeah okay" He says looking curious, yet confused.
"Ben forget about it for now, what were you saying?"
"Oh, some boy's at the door for you Miranda"
Miranda gets off her bed and starts towards the stairs, looking confused.
What boy? Who would be at my door? What? I'm extremely confused.
I head towards the door and slowly-cautiously-and peek out the second-glass door.
It turns out to be Emmett.
"Hey Miranda" He says with a sly smile. I finish opening the door.
"Um, hello Emmett" I say with a friendly smile. "How's it going?"
"Oh, um pretty good, but thats why i'm here, how's it going with you?"
"Well, i'm better, but I still have some serious problems," I say
"Yeah, thats probably typical, sorry that I haven't talked to you since your parents-"
"Yeah go ahead.. accident, honestly i'm not quite that fragile" I say giving him a sweet smile.
"Oh, yeah okay, so well just wondering if you wanted to get a coffee or something sometime"
"Um, yeah sure.. when?"
"Whenever you're free"
"Well thats just about always, how about now?" I say
"Now? Yeah sure" He smiles
"'Kay, come on in" "I'll be right back" He nods and sits on the sofa.
I run up the stairs and head towards my bedroom.
"Oh my gosh, you guys i'm so sorry I forgot that you were here-"
"Emmett's here and we are going out to get a coffee, sorry, is that ok-"
"Hey, girl go- have fun, you need a little more human interaction" Says Angela sweetly.
"Thanks-see ya!" I say grabbing my sweater and my purse. I run down that stairs and meet Emmett at the doorway.
"You ready?" He asks
"Uh yeah I think so" I smile.

Once we arrive I realize I left my wallet on the kitchen counter
"Hey I forgot my wallet" I say
"Yeah, no, cool thats fine i've got it" He says glancing over at me as we pull into the parking lot of Starbucks.
Emmett opens the door for me when I hear some girls from school talking and giggling at one of the tables. I glance over and they're all looking and pointing at me as if I were some weird science experiment of a volcano. I try to ignore it and head towards one of the tables.
I guess Emmett must have noticed the same girls because as soon as we sit down he starts talking.
"Hey, don't pay any attention to them, they are all rude"
"Yeah I know, thanks" Just two of the girls walk by examining me. I take in a deep breath and look down.
"Nevermind them, lets go order" He says
We are standing in line, when you-know-who decides to come up and stand behind me.
"Haha, look at that freak, did you know that her parents were comlete losers?" The brunette one says
"Omg! I know right. It's too bad that loser of a brother she has didn't die either" Said the other girl with red hair and freckles. I look up and try not to cry, when I think I finnally have my tears under control, the third girl comes up behind me and whispers to her friends "Huh, you wish her brother died? Look at her. Pathetic" That was it I couldn't take it any longer even though Emmett was in front of me trying to comfort, it didn't help I turned completely around and stompped out the door and bawled in the parking lot I heard those girls laugh as if their main goal was to get the volcano to explode.
I hear foot steps behind me.
I sit down on a bench outside and keep on crying untill I feel a strong, warm and comforting arm around my shoulders. I shove my face into his side and cry a little bit longer.
"Sorry, I need to stop,sorry" I say
"No thats okay. Feel welcome to cry on my shoulder anytime"
"Thanks" I say giving him a wry smile.