Suzie’s House 95: What About You Guys?

Miranda poured herself a coffee, then eyed the dark liquid in her cup with Irish in mind. She was keeping it together, but just barely. Vin kept sneaking into her room at night, which felt weird with the kid in the house. Suzie wasn’t the least bit shaken about having whacked that nut job Sean O’Connel in the back of the head but Miranda was quaking in her boots. Drew was back to his taciturn self, and Miranda was sure he’d threaten to move out again, though if anything he was making himself even more at home – in Suzie’s bedroom. And Vin… Vin was too good to be true.

It was all going to fall apart again, she just knew it.

She kept catching herself on the verge of saying something stupid to Vin, something nasty and biting that he didn’t deserve. Over and over only the thought of what Suzie would say stopped her. How much longer could she hold on?

“Hey.”

Miranda’s head jerked up automatically, though she already knew from the tone and timber it wasn’t Vin’s voice. It was only Ben.

Ben leaned against the counter next to her, and eyed her coffee. She took a cautious sip while glaring not-on-your-life at him.

“Miranda, what would you do if you saw someone doing something they really shouldn’t?”

“Shouldn’t like what?”

“Shouldn’t like a teacher kissing the father of one of her students.”

“Are either of them married?”

Ben shrugged, looking uncertain and vulnerable. She thought about telling him teachers are allowed to have lives outside of school, which might include a little mutually-consensual knoodling in their private time, but got the feeling that wasn’t really what Ben needed to hear right then. Besides, she wasn’t entirely sure that the knoodling he was talking about really was ok.

“Who are we talking about, and when did this happen?”

“About a week ago. Mrs. D and Gene’s dad. She’s been gone since then. We have this special teacher now. She isn’t a substitute and she isn’t a student, or anything. She’s teaching us to write stories.”

“You like it?”

“I love it! I’m getting good grades.”

Miranda smiled. How simple life is when you’re young and all it takes to make you happy is getting good grades. She didn’t think she’d ever been that young.

“She says nice things on my papers too. I hope Mrs. D never comes back.”

“The school year is almost over. Maybe she won’t.”

“No.” A shadow passed over Ben’s face, one that marked him with far more maturity than she’d ever seen on him before. “I’m not that lucky.”

Miranda didn’t have anything to say to that, except she knew the feeling.

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