Once when Miley was little, her mother had taken her to the zoo once. She was a scrawny 6 year old with crooked teeth and freckles that dotted across her tiny nose. She'd worn her tangled curly brown hair in two ponytails on either side of her head that day, and her favorite pink and white checked dress.
Little Miley spent the day aweing at pandas, oohing at giraffes and eating hundreads of calories worth of snack foods. Halfway through the day, Miley decided she wanted to see the tigers. Holding a stick of pink cotton candy in her sticky hands, she and her mother followed the signs that led them to the tigers.
There they were, all decked out in stripes and fur. Miley was amazed by them, and even in her mind contemplated having one as a pet.
But then something happened.
The shouts of the zookeepers came first, and then suddenly a small deer darted into view. Miley watched in horror as it flashed in front of the tiger. The tiger roared and the next thing Miley knew, it was pinned on top of the lifeless deer, which now lay in a bloody heap on the ground. Naïve Miley had seen the whole thing. Several minutes later Miley threw up her cotton candy in the trashcan next to the woman's bathroom. That was the last time she'd ever gone to the zoo. She found it sickening to watch the stronger picking on the weak.
And now looking up into Ben's eyes, it was like she was at the zoo again. Except this time, she wasn't the bystander. She was on the other side of the fence. She was the deer. And Ben was the tiger.
But no. She revised the thought in her head and then thought it again. She wasn't just a lone dead deer. She was alive. And she had someone to protect her. She had Nick. Nick was the bull.
"I knew it you little bitch! You are a whore!" Ben cackled. Miley squeezed her eyes shut.
His face hardened. "I can believe you thought you could cheat on me and get away with it".
She shook her head quickly. "No, that's not-". But she was cut off, because Ben lunged for her and shoved her hard into the corner of the open closet door.
She whimped slightly and reached for her head.
"HEY! Get away from her!" Nick yelled jumping to his feet, and shoving Ben out of the closet doorway and into the bedroom behind him.
"Don't touch me!" Ben shouted back. He threw his fist forward to try to punch Nick, but Nick beat him to it. Pulling back his hand he swung his fist into Ben's face, sending Ben sprawling to the floor.
"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" Ben roared and stumbled to his feet in his drunken rage, blood streaming out of his nose. He flung himself at Nick, knocking Nick to the ground, and landing on top of him.
After that, there was just a blur of wild punches, horrible cracking sounds and the eerie sounds of Miley screaming at them. "STOP!!!" She wailed, "I SWEAR TO GOD YOU'RE GOING TO KILL EACH OTHER! STOP, PLEASE!!"
Ben sighed after a few minutes and triumphantly got off an now silent and motionless Nick.
"Oh my God", Miley choked, "Oh my God, Ben, I think you killed him".
"shut the fuck up, bitch!" he yelled and jumped on top of her, winning a scream from Miley. And then a few gasps for air.
He grinned down at her. "How's it feel to not be able to breathe?"
Her eyes grew wider and more frightend with each passing moment.
"Stop struggling", Ben growled, as she squirmed underneath his heavy body. "In a few seconds you'll be dead, just like you're little friend".
In that split second, Miley's life flashed before her eyes. She saw images of her parents, that trip to the zoo when she was 6, photographs of she and Mikayla with acne and braces, that horrible night of prom, and lastly, Nick holding her close just moments ago.
And she realized something.
She wasn't about to let someone kill her. Let alone Ben.
With as much strength as she could muster, she kicked him in the groin as hard as possible.
"FUCK!" he cried and rolled off of her. Taking a quick deep breath, Miley, although she was weak, got to her feet, gave Nick a fleeting look, and then ran out into the streets of New York.
"HELP!" she screamed. "HELP, MY FRIEND IS DEAD!" This was the only was she could think of to get someone in New York City to pay attention to her. "MY FRIEND IS DEAD IN MY APARTMENT! HELP!"
She looked up and down the busy streets frantically as she screeched on an on. People gave her odd glances and would dismiss it.
Miley let out a small cry. Who in this big city was going to help her? And what if they were too late?