#ozinyellow

      Miri was not having fun. Why did she keep coming to parties? Why? Was she really that much of a glutton for punishment? Who knows. Who cares? Not Miranda, because she keeps coming to them.

      At least this time, Miranda had a purpose. Sort of. Not really, more like an excuse. With everything seemingly starting to catch up to her and worry on her brain like skin parasites on one of the ocean’s great beasts, she needed a little fun. And a little fun meant drinking. Now, Miranda was not one to drink, or even try, no. She didn’t do it that often, and usually shunned away from it due to her being a lightweight. She had tasted it a time or two, usually as a result of her more vice-driven friends wanting her to branch out a little, and Miranda was not one to shun away from exploration when there could be some perk in it. A perk for her, that is. She really didn’t like it that much, but honestly, she needed something to take her mind off things.

      So, with the chance of “7 Minutes in Heaven” being offered up once more, surprisingly, Miranda volunteered herself this time. She walked into the closet with her head held high, a drunken sway in her walk, and the smell of alcohol on her breath. The closet was locked behind the two, and Miranda wobbled slightly as she stood for a few moments, before opting to lean against the wall, propping her arm up against it in an attempt to be suave. “I wanna have a little fun from time to time tooooo-! Come on, Ozzy, cutie, you act like you’ve never seen me like this before!” In fact, they wouldn’t have seen Miranda like this before- no one at school would’ve seen her like this before. 

✄ 👻 ➤ ➤ ➤;;

BE STILL HER NON-BEATING HEART ! !

The closet was about as close to a coffin as anything she had ever been in, and the moment she stepped inside, it may as well have been that she had been buried alive.  So much tension to weigh down her non- physical body. So much confusion to pull her back down into the uncertainty she had thought she left behind alongside her humanity. 

So why was she here if everything was closing in around her?

THEM. THEM, THEM, THEM. 

If her heart could beat, it would be singing  Oz’s name. If her blood could pump, it would be their presence flowing through her like oxygen and blood vessels. Everything they did, from the wild parties to the stammering, from the hesitant compliments, from the flirting, to the straight-up  FORCED admissions of affection-- All of it was more intoxicating than ANY DRUG SHE HAD EXPERIENCED. 

“Yeah, uhh... Polly here. I needed to like,  ASK YOU SOMETHING or WHATEVER--

      Miri approached Oz quietly, stepping lightly on her feet. She didn’t hesitate in making a gesture for their schoolbag- an offering to help them get everything back in order and inside the bag. Unfortunately, that moment was over almost as soon as Miri made the gesture, rendering it useless. She sighed, softly, a little... Perhaps exhausted? She wasn’t upset with Oz, no, but she did want to help them, to help them see why she liked having them around.

      “Maybe you don’t, but I do. I enjoy your company, and... You’re kind.” She felt an odd, twisting sensation in her gut at Oz’s sad smile, and she immediately sat down at a desk near Oz, taking her place with a sense of... Compassion? Maybe? No, no. The Vanderbilt family felt no such thing as compassion! She desperately shook off the very thought.

“oh, hello!” she went up to the shadow person. the greeting from her is soft and sweet. her face lit up with a very warm smile. almost as if she was talking to someone’s pet instead of another being. well, technically she is. her hand gives the little shadow on their shoulder a small pat. “aren’t you the cutest little thing! i’ll buy ten please!”

She isn’t too bruised up but she clearly was punched in the face a few times. But, considering how red her knuckles are, she’s done just as much damage. Surprisingly, she doesn't seem too fazed by it. Well, maybe surprising to the shadow monster, but this is exactly the stuff she’s trained for.

“I’m perfectly fine. Don’t worry.”

“But, your arm... does Healing Magic hurt you?”