Mira Loves You

Chapter 1

Apply that lip gloss like it's your job

You know you're his heartthrob

--Finger Twist & Split

Cute Is What We Aim For

"Eek!" Giselle shrieked as her boyfriend Carter pushed her off the hot tiles and into the pool, then dived in after her. He caught Giselle under the water, almost like a lifeguard, and swam up to the surface with her in his arms. She pushed herself high enough to kiss him on the nose before giggling and sliding back into the water. Utter and complete perfection seemed to radiate from them like an aura. It was one of those moments when everything seems beautiful and right with the world- or would have if there wasn't a jealous ex-girlfriend watching from the sidelines.

Hot, intense pain and anger flashed inside Mira as she watched them. The memory of the break up was so fresh, so new so- unbelievable. Like a piece of duct-tape being ripped off without warning, it left her red and raw.

It had happened at a party. The crowd pressed in against them from all sides except the back, where Mira was leaning against the staircase. Music pounded through the stereo system, but it wasn't loud enough to drown out the conversation.

"Do you have to go?" Mira asked, her arms around Carter's neck, sticking her lower lip out in a flirty pout and batting her eyelashes.

"Uh-huh," he grunted in response, pushing his sleeve back to check his watch.

"Well, bye hon," Mira said, standing tiptoe to kiss him. She still got that little thrill she felt whenever she kissed him. Things had always felt so right when they were together. Mira looked up into Carter's perfect teal eyes as they broke apart. Was that guilt that had just glittered back there? But at second glance, it was gone, and Carter was striding out the front door, running his fingers through his gorgeous white-blonde hair. That was one of the things Mira loved about him- he was so hott without even trying.

As Mira sidled up to the cooler for a soda (alcoholbarfingunattractive) a rough arm grabbed her around the shoulders and whispered, "Hey sexy. Wanna go upstairs?" Mira could smell the alcohol all over him-his breath, his shirt, everything.

"Umm, no. Actually, I was just leaving," Mira replied as she swung his arm off her and made her way through the crowd to the back door. She had left her jacket outside anyway, and she wanted to give all appearances that she was going somewhere.

Mira slid open the glass door, then checked to make sure that guy wasn't looking for her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't see him and turned around to look for her jacket.

Her eyes widened with horror and shock at what she saw; Carter hadn't left after all, unless that was his evil twin making out with her best friend.

The blood pounded in Mira's ears and tears prickled at her eyes as she watched them. The balmy August night had suddenly turned chilly and goose bumps rippled down her arms. Mira wanted to scream, shout, tear them away from each other instead of standing there as hot, silent tears trickled down her cheeks, totally and completely helpless.

Carter opened his eyes to his girlfriend's tear-stained eyes boring into him. He pulled himself away from Giselle's clutching embrace, staring at Mira like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar. "Mir-"he started.

"Carter Matthews, I don't want to hear it," she hissed, her eyes turning into angry blue slits. "I put up with your flirting- I knew that was one of those things I would just have to deal with. But this? Lying to me, then going and shoving your tongue down my best friend's throat? We are so over, Carter."

With that, Mira strode back inside and darted out the front door to her car. The tears weren't so much trickling as pouring down her cheeks by now. It wasn't until she was halfway home that she realized she had forgotten her jacket. Girls who've just had their hearts broken aren't the most rational creatures.

---

"Wow Mimi. Those sunglasses must be really strong. You've been staring at the sun for like 5 minutes," Giselle's perky voice snapped Mira back to the present. Mira didn't really understand why she had told Gigi she had forgiven her. She supposed it was because Giselle had sounded so pathetic over the phone, crying and begging for Mira to forgive her. Naturally, the second after Mira said, "Okay," Gigi had asked Carter out.

Giselle had obviously just gotten out of the water- her golden blonde hair was wet and beaded water droplets made her skin sparkle. Mira kind of thought that Giselle was how Aphrodite would want to look if she had to become human.

Giselle sat down and leaned back in the pool chair next to Mira's. She glanced critically at her legs, head tilted, lips pursed, then said, "Eww. I have seriously ugly chicken legs." That was Gigi for you. Always fishing for compliments.

Mira rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses before saying, "It's better than being pale. I swear, I would kill for your tan."

Giselle smiled at this. She loved being complemented on her skin.

Behind her, Carter was flirting with Amy Hatfield. Amy was pretty; that bright red hair and perky nose had attracted more than a few boyfriends. It was slightly reassuring to see that Carter hadn't changed with getting a new girlfriend. He would still flirt with anything in a skirt; or, even better, a bikini.

"What are you looking at?" Giselle asked, turning to see what Mira was staring at.

"Nothing," Mira replied, looking away and blushing. Gigi would think that Mira still liked him…which was the truth, but Giselle didn't need to know that.

However, Mira's words seemed to go unheard. Giselle was still looking at Carter, her profile barely visible to Mira. Was she imagining it, or was the tiniest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of Gigi's mouth?

"Hey Carter!" Giselle shouted, jumping up and striding over to Carter and Amy. Her face was scrunched up in anger, her chin stubborn, hands on slim hips. No doubt about it, Gigi was acting, turning something small into something huge. She always did this when she didn't have a good reason to break up with a guy.

"Who do you think you are?" she asked, poking him in the chest, her jaw set. It was the little things that made it obvious to Mira that Giselle was acting; why else would Gigi's jaw be so set as to blatantly show emotion?

"Uh, Giselle, what's your problem?" Carter asked, cocking an eyebrow. He was so clueless, in a hot way.

"You're my problem, Carter! I can't turn my back on you for two minutes without you going and flirting with some other girl. I thought you might change, but I was obviously wrong. You know what? You can go ahead and flirt with whoever you want, Carter. I'm done trying- we're through." At the end of her little speech, Giselle gave Carter one final glare and grabbed her things before storming out through Mira's back gate.

Mira had to stop herself from clenching her own jaw; too much of a giveaway that she was pissed off. In stopping herself from doing that, Mira's knuckles were white and she opened her hands to see tiny white crescent moons in her palm. Fury tingled in her veins as she got up off her chair. Screw this little get-together; Mira was going up to her room so that she could scream.

---

Beep! Beep! Beep! Mira's adorable hot pink Razr pinged as Mira dial Kristin's phone number. Giselle was too much of a coward to admit to Mira herself that she had been pretending. All she did when Mira called was whine about how much of a flirt Carter was. Um, hello. You already knew that when you started going out with him, Gigi.

Mira knew that the next person Giselle had called was Kristin. Kristin was the blonde Giselle-wannabe who would agree with anything Gigi said. That was what Giselle needed: someone to agree with all her groaning. Mira hadn't really done much, just the occasional "Uh-huh" in-between sentences. Kristin was much more sympathetic to, well, anything.

Mira had waited an hour before calling Kristin. That was enough time for Giselle to get bored with pretending to wallow in her own misery.

"Hello?" Kristin's loud, cheerful voice answered on the second ring.

"Hey Krissy! It's Mira," Mira replied, keeping her own voice upbeat and casual.

"Oh! Hey Mira!"

"So, have you heard about Giselle and Carter's break up?" Mira asked, changing her voice to an astonished gossip-y tone.

"Uh-huh. I just got of the phone with Giselle like 15 minutes ago." Mira heard a faint note of pride in Kristin's voice at being Gigi's confidante. It was kind of mean of Giselle to lead her on like that.

"Really? What did she say?"

"Not too much. She just complained about Carter."

"Oh. Anything about me?" Mira paced around her room like a caged tiger; she wanted to get to the point of this conversation.

"Just that she hoped you weren't totally pissed at her for ruining your little thing." Of course, no actual consideration of Mira's feelings on the break up. There was a tiny bit of hurt at not being invited in Kristin's voice. Mira decided to fix this with a little white lie.

"Krissy! I totally would have invited you if I didn't owe Amy for letting me borrow her cute jacket, and my mom said we could have only 4 people over. Mark wanted one of his friends to come over." Mark was Mira's annoying older brother. Truth was, Mark had been over at his friend's house, but Kristin didn't need to know that.

"Anywho," Mira continued, "did Giselle say why she broke up with Carter?"

"Nope. She just mentioned something about this guy- Oh my god! I so should not have said that! I promised I wouldn't tell!"

"Krissy! You've already said something! Now you have to tell! You can't keep this from me!" Mira exclaimed into her phone. This was what she had been waiting for; the real reason Giselle had dumped Carter.

"Um, okay, but you have to promise to act totally normal like you don't know."

Mira flashed a predator's grin at herself in the mirror, all teeth and malice. "Of course I'll act normal!" Mira's voice was all sugar and honey in contrast with her smile. She almost got sick hearing the echoes of it fading into the phone.

"Okay. You know that James guy?"

"Uh-huh." James was cute, with bright green eyes and an adorable smile. He seemed smart; Mira supposed it was the light skin and black hair, the stereotype of people who spent a lot of time inside. Looks were deceiving, though. James was about as smart as Mira's doorknob.

"Well, Giselle likes him!"

"Oh my gosh, are you serious?" James was going to get lucky- Giselle liking him instantly made him the most desirable boy in school.

"Yep!"

"Holy Cow! Hold on- I think my mom's calling me," she wasn't, but Mira wanted an excuse to get off the phone. A brilliant thought had just struck her; now all she needed was the right person. Mira waited a minute before putting the phone back up to her ear and saying apologetically, "Hey Kristy? I gotta go."

"'Kay! Bye Mira!"

"Bye." Mira clicked off her cell and went to go hunt for her yearbook.

---

On Thursday, the after the big breakup, Mira strode into the noisy cafeteria for lunch. It was a relief to be halfway through the day; Mira wasn't sure how long she would be able to put up with Giselle tossing her hair and rolling her eyes every time she saw Carter. It was extremely annoying to be cut off mid-sentence so that Gigi could have her mini-hissy fit.

Giselle was chattering away as Mira brought her hamburger over their usual lunch table. Mira had never seen any sense in just getting a salad and bottled water for lunch. She exercised and still had a pretty high metabolism, so why bother?

Gigi, naturally, was toying around with the lettuce in her salad as she said, "Hi Mimi!" and turned back to the rest of the table. Mira took a seat across from Gigi with a few of the lunch line; she was looking for a certain someone.

After a few minutes of waiting, Mira finally saw the person she was waiting for approach the front of the line to pay for her food. "You know, Tally Mitchell could be totally pretty," Mira remarked casually, interrupting Giselle's answer to some stupid question. The remark was true; Tally could have been pretty. She had a nice, small nose, full lips, and probably had gorgeous eyes behind those fugly glasses.

"I guess so," Giselle said after throwing a quick look over her shoulder. Giselle never really noticed how pretty other girls could be; she was more focused on how weird they looked now. Mira, however, was always saying things like this. She saw the facial structure while Giselle saw braids and glasses.

"I know she could be," Mira replied coolly. "Tally! Over here!" she shouted as she smiled and waved for Tally to come sit with them. Mira had to stifle a giggle at the look on Gigi's face; her mouth was slightly open and her eyebrows were raised. She obviously hadn't expected Mira to actually do anything about Tally.

Tally wasn't sure at first if it was really her that Mira was yelling at. Mira Chambers, one of the prettiest, most popular girls in school, asking Tally, the brainy science geek, to come sit with her. It had to be some kind of mean trick; popular girls weren't nice to people like her. Still, Mira wasn't noted for being mean…which was why Tally timidly walked over to Mira's table. Hey, you know you would have too.

"Could you scoot down a seat?" Mira smiled at the redhead sitting next to her. Obediently, the redhead picked up her lunch tray and moved down a chair. Tally quickly set her own tray down and practically jumped into the vacant chair as if it would be snatched away if she didn't move fast enough. Tally immediately felt out of place amongst the beautiful girls at this table. She couldn't help but feel pretty stupid and ugly next to them.

"Say Tally, are you going to Rick's party tomorrow night?" Mira asked casually as she put a tomato on her hamburger. This Rick guy was throwing a huge 17th birthday party. Seriously, everybody who was in any of his classes (and quite a few people who weren't) was invited. His parents had been gone for his 16th birthday, so he was really using the guilt factor to get this great, gigantic party.

Mira heard Tally mumble something in which the words "my parents" could be heard; a reason not to go. Mira highly doubted that Tally had even told her parents about the party.

"Come on, Tally. It's Rick's 17th birthday party. His parents are going to chaperone and it's going to be way awesome. Oh! I know! You could come over to my house after school tomorrow and we could get ready together!"

"Uh…I guess I could ask my mom," Tally replied. She wasn't really sure if she wanted to go. And why was Mira suddenly being so nice to her? Mira didn't exactly look down on everyone else and refuse to talk to them, but she couldn't really be considered a nerd's best friend.

"Great! I'll call you. What's your number?" Mira smiled sweetly at Tally as she whipped out her cell. Tally was in for more than she bargained for, that was for sure. Tally sort of stuttered her number as Mira beeped it into her phone. She couldn't blame Tally for being nervous; her friends were a little intimidating.

Tally was still suspicious. What if Mira made her look stupid? Still, it wasn't as if Tally couldn't wash off the makeup and call her mom to come pick her up if Mira did something like that.

"By the way, Tally, do you have contacts?" Contacts would make things so much easier. Mira wasn't planning on letting Tally go to that party with glasses unless she would run into walls without them.

"Yes, I do, actually," Tally answered nervously. Her mom had bought her some contact lenses a couple of months ago in an effort to stop Tally from losing her glasses all the time. Tally's mom had a point. It was a whole lot harder to lose something when it was stuck to your eye. Tally just didn't like having to spend half an hour trying to put them in in the morning so she stuck with her glasses.

"Really? Great! Bring them to school with you tomorrow if your mom says you can come. Do you want to borrow some of my clothes for the party? I bet you're my size. I'll call you tonight to see what she said."

Tally nodded and stared down at her food as she listened to the conversation around her slide back into petty chatter. Really, these girls talked about the stupidest things…

---

"Where is your boy tonight?

I hope he is a gentleman

Maybe he won't find out what I know:

You were the last good thing about this part of town."

Mira sang along with the Fall Out Boy CD as her and Tally drove down Mira's street. She grinned apologetically at Tally and said, "I know this song's kind of old, but I love it."

Tally had no clue as to whether the song was old or not. She didn't really listen to music. It was a little weird to her how other kids were so obsessed with it.

"Ooooh, there's my house!" Mira exclaimed as they pulled into the driveway of a nice two-story brick house. Funny how Mira didn't live in a mansion. It was what Tally expected all of Mira's friends to live in. She did catch a glimmer of blue, though. It looked like Mira had a pool.

Mira slammed her car door shut and saw Tally do the same as she walked up to her front door, Tally close behind.

"Hey mom!" Mira shouted as she shut the front door. "Tally's here."

"Hello honey, hello Tally," Mira's mother, Janet, smiled at them as she walked out of the study. She looked like an older Mira, only with ash-blonde hair. "You guys going upstairs to your room?"

"Yep. Come on, Tally." Mira led the way through the white living room to a small beige room and up a flight of steps. Apparently the Chambers family liked their separate spaces.

"Well, here it is," Mira announced as she opened the door to her bedroom. It was gorgeous, if a tiny bit messy. Tally wished she had a room this pretty. The main theme seemed to be blue; blue bedspread, a blue wall, a blue rug. The other three walls were white with a golden-beige design on them. There was a computer in the corner next to what Tally figured was Mira's closet door. A modern mirror and countertop was littered with hairspray, a blow dryer, make up, and perfume.

"Do you want to go put your contacts in?" Mira asked as she watched Tally's slightly awestruck face take everything in. She supposed her room was pretty nice.

"Oh! Yeah, sure," Tally blushed as she realized she had been gawking like an idiot. "Um, don't be surprised if it takes me a little while. I've only put them in about 3 times."

Mira waved a hand carelessly as she pulled her desk chair over to the counter. "Sure. Whatever you need to put them in. Bathroom's across the hall."

Tally's eyes stung and blistered as tried over and over to get the stupid things in. When she finally managed to do it, Tally didn't see too much of a difference in her appearance. Sure, her eyes were a bit more noticeable, but that was it.

Mira was arranging things on her counter as Tally walked back into Mira's room. Mira looked up and smiled. Tally was definitely going to be pretty with the right make up. She gestured impatiently for Tally to sit. Well, here goes nothing…