Page 164 of Shy Girls Can't Date Rockstars
“Because it made me feel worse about myself.” She looks me up and down. “Youmake me feel worse about myself.”
I scoff. “Me?”
“I shouldn’t have been resenting the four-year-old version of you all this time. I know you weren’t the one holding back my money. But Sarah blamed you for cutting me off.”
“Blame isn’t the right word—“
Miranda swiftly interrupts me. “No, right. Obviously, I never thought I’d have this conversation out loud with you. I’ve been missing your mother for over a decade.”
“Missing, or acting like she’s been dead all that time?”
“I was all alone,” she says softly. “Pretending she didn’t exist was the only way I could cope.”
“You could have reached out. You could have been her sister without letting the money get between you.”
“Easier to say when you were the one she loved.”
“Her letter said she loved you. That never changed.”
“I’ve read that letter more times than I care to admit. You don’t need to remind me of what it said.”
“Clearly I do if you’re still playing the victim.”
“Victim?” There’s venom in her tone. “You have no idea the road I’ve had to take.”
“But you weren’t orphaned when you were sixteen.”
Miranda blinks at me and eases her stance. “No, I wasn’t.”
I press a hand to my chest. “Miranda, this is hard for me. I don’t know you. I don’t know this town or this school. Everything is upside down. You look like my mother, but you act nothing like her. It hurts. Looking at you hurts. Listening to you hurts. Being around you hurts.”
“I…” she stumbles on the word. “I look like your mother?”
My brows pinch together. “That’s all you heard?”
“I just… I didn’t think…”
“I don’t want to keep doing this.” I wave my hands, backing away from her. “I miss my parents, and all you’ve done is make my life harder.”
“But I…”
“You put me to work the moment I got here. Who does that? I’m grieving the loss of my parents, but you make me tutor a total stranger. What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m trying to survive.”
I stop dead, staring at her fretful eyes. “No, you’re trying to get revenge. Your sister closed the door on you, so you want to use her child for your own gain.”
Outrage has Miranda fired up. “No, I never—“
“Save it!” I lift my hand like a stop sign. “It’s so obvious to me now.”
“I loved Sarah!” Miranda shouts. “Yes, I didn’t want to get to know you. But, guess what? Looking at you hurts me too. You are your mother’s daughter. You’re good to your core, and it’s just as infuriating as it was the first time.”
The silence that follows is the kind that has weight to it.
Miranda crosses her arms over her chest and looks out the window. “You even handle Ryder better than me.”
“What?”
