(Miranda's POV): I sat in my room, reading my absolute favorite book, Pride and Prejudice, for the upteenth time this year as I awaited the arrival of my two best friends, Molly and Macie. The ticking of the antique grandfather clock in the hall became more agonizing with each passing second.
I hated being apart from my besties for so long. I flew to New York two weeks ago to move all of our stuff in and have only communicated with my girls through texts. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"YAY!" I squealed as I sprinted to the front door of our new penthouse apartment. I opened the door and was nearly knocked down by the hugs from Molly and Macie. "Oh, Miranda," Molly gushed. "We missed you sooo much!" Macie exclaimed. "I missed you guys, too," I said. Then all of a sudden, my two little dogs came running out greet my friends. "Hey, look, it's little Chloe," Molly giggled as she lightly petted the small white Pomeranian. "And little Pooka," Macie chortled as she picked up the small West Highland Terrier in her arms, "I missed these little guys." "And I missed 4/5 of my clothes. Did everything make it ok?" Molly asked. "Yeah. All of your's and Macie's stuff is in your rooms. I had the help put all of your clothes in the closets and drawers and wardrobes. Want to check out your rooms?" I asked. "Yeah, totally," the girls agreed. I quickly led them to the two large bedrooms down the hall from mine. They were both in awe when I showed them the view just outside their windows. "Oh my god! You can see all of New York from here!" Macie exclaimed breathlessly. "Man, what a view!" Molly exclaimed.
"So when's Melissa coming, Miranda?" Macie asked. "During fall break. My dad and I at least wanted her to finish out the first grading quarter of school. That way, she'll have her first set of grades and she'll be starting school here in Domino when they're starting new things in her classes and she won't be behind on anything." I explained. "Coolio," Molly said.
After the girls got settled in, I suggested that we go out to dinner and catch up. They agreed. We all walked down to the parking garage and got in my new 2010 Escalade. "So, where are we going to eat?" Molly asked. "My cousin, Chelsea, told me I have to check out this one place. It's an automat. You know, like how they used to do way back when. And the food is supposed to be insanely good. They have, like, Croquettes and Burgers and Chicken and all kinds of other stuff," I explained. "Mmm, sounds amazing," Molly said. We pulled out of the parking lot and began our drive to East Village.
"So, what happened while I was gone?" I asked my girls. "Molly quit the PCP softball team," Macie said. "Because you were moving here?" I asked. "That, and the coach turned out to be a real jackass! He blamed the whole loss to Napa Valley High on me! I let one minor play go by me at first base and suddenly it's all my fault! But that wasn't the end of it. He blamed me when I got out on every hit I got! I got on base twice! At least I got a bat on the freaking ball! Some of the juniors and seniors didn't even get hits. It was all total bull!" Molly fumed. "Hey Molls. Don't even worry about it. I always knew Coach West was a jackass," I said, "So, what's new with you, Mace?" "I'm getting a new puppy tomorrow. I've already picked her out. There's a little store in Manhattan that had a website. She's the cutest little Yorkie I've ever seen!" Macie fawned. "What are you going to name her?" I asked. "I don't know. I was thinking either Cupcake, Rosie, or Princess. What do you guys think?" Macie asked. "I like Rosie," Molly said. "Me, too," I agreed. Macie smiled.
For the rest of the drive, all we were doing was shouting when we saw cool sites like the Empire State building or Statue of Liberty. "Ok, so I was thinking that after we eat, we go window shopping on Fifth Avenue, and then we head back to the apartment and call it a night. Then, we'll do some sight-seeing tomorrow and check out our new school and the area," I said. "Sounds good to me," Macie reassured me. "I dig," Molly said.
Just as they said that, I pulled the car into a parking lot across the street. We walked over to the Bamn! Automat across the street. "Mmm, I can smell it already!" Molly said. "You must be starving, you poor thing!" I shouted in a laugh.
As soon as we stepped in the door of the automat, we smelled the aroma of food cooking. We all looked at each other with huge smiles on our faces. We paid our money and got our coins for the automat. We quickly selected our treats. I got, and I know I'll pay for this later in the gym, a Mac and Cheese Croquette and the Red Bamboo Soul Chicken Sandwich, Molly got Rosemary Chicken Fritters and some fries, and Macie got what is rumored to be the best Bacon Cheeseburger ever. We chowed down, making huge deals about how amazing the food was.
After we finished, we headed back to the car and drove off to my Promised Land, and, yes, I'm talking about Fifth Avenue. We window shopped for about an hour or so, buying a new hat and a white Hermes silk scarf for moi, a Marc Jacobs handbag for Macie, and some BabyPhat jeans and a Ralph Lauren sweater for Molly. We hopped back in the car and drove back to the apartment.
On the way back, we passed a huge skyscraper. "Oooh, look! The KaibaCorp building!" Molly shouted. "Oh, yeah. We'll pass it everyday on the way to school. Cool, huh?" I said. As I passed the building, I noticed a tall brunette exiting the building with a smaller boy with long black hair. The taller brunette put his arm around the small boy's shoulders lovingly. I couldn't help but say "awww" as I saw this.
We finally made it back to the apartment around nine o'clock, but we weren't ready to go to bed just yet. We all got our showers, donned our pajamas, brushed our teeth, and then sat together in my room on my giant, king-size canopy bed.
"Can we go to the New York City Ballet tomorrow?" Macie pleaded. "Not before we go to Yankee Stadium!" Molly shouted. "Fine," Macie pouted, "I wonder what our new school will be like." "I've already checked it out. It's about the same size as Pacific Coast Prep. It actually looks nice, and it's in a pretty nice part of town. We can drive by tomorrow and see I if you'd like," I assured them. "Oh, please don't say 'drive-by'," Molly begged. "Oh, lighten up, Molls," Macie said. "Hey, I just don't want to get mugged," Molly said. Macie and I just rolled our eyes.
"You know what the best part of moving across the country is?" I asked the girls. "No. What?" Molly asked. "Oh, I know! You don't have to worry about that psycho-killer ex-boyfriend of yours anymore!" Macie answered. A distressed look crossed my face. "Oops, sorry!" Macie panicked. "Oh yeah! I forgot all about that! Remind me what happened again," Molly said. I took a deep breath, sighed, and began the story.
"Well, I started going out with Conner towards the middle of Sophomore year, and for a while, it was going well. Until it got towards the end of the year when my dad told me that he got me an internship with my idol, Kimora Lee Simons. I told everyone, including Conner, about the internship, and everyone was happy for me, except for Conner. I told him that I was moving to New York and that I thought we should break-up so I don't keep him tied to me when I'll never get to see him. Well, he flipped out! He started missing school more and more frequently and no one could get a hold of him online or by phone or text. Then on the Fourth of July I was at the park down the street from my house watching the fireworks. When one really bright one when up, from the light of the explosion, I thought I saw Conner on the bridge overlooking the creek. I hadn't seen or talked to him in a month, and I missed him, so I made my way over to the bridge as soon as the fireworks stopped. I wanted to run up and hug my friend, but I wanted to make sure it was Conner first so I didn't look like a total idiot. 'Conner' I asked when I was about a foot away from the figure. Suddenly, the figure grabbed me around my neck and pulled a knife on me. The figure spoke, and at that second, I knew it was Conner. He preached about how I was breaking his heart and how if he couldn't have me, then no one could. He was about ready to cut my throat when we both heard the sound of police cars' sirens. Someone had seen Conner grab me and called the cops. He shouted 'Oh Shit' and took off, leaving me on the ground with a huge slash on my shoulder from when he quickly pulled the knife away so he could run away. The police caught him soon after and took him down to the station and to Juvie a few days later. About two days after the encounter, I got restraining order on Conner, saying that he couldn't come within 500 feet of me."
When I finished the story, the two girls were silent in shock. "Oh my god!" Molly exclaimed. "It just gets worse and worse every time I hear it," Macie said sadly. "Well, at least I don't have to worry about him coming back anymore," I said, reassuring myself and my girls. "Yeah, thank god," Macie said.
Molly let out a huge yawn. "I am so tired!" she said. "We should all go to bed now. We have a long day tomorrow," I said. "Alright. Goodnight!" Both Molly and Macie said as they left my room. I then turned off the lights and drifted off into, surprisingly, a peaceful sleep, considering all of the nightmares I've been having lately.