<strong>NAME:</strong>Miriam Goldman<br/><strong>WEARING:</strong>A pretty dress! (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/a5/0035b5b5.jpeg)<br/><strong>DAY:</strong>Friday, June 9<br/><strong>TIME:</strong>Evening to night<br/><strong>LOCATION:</strong>At the Goldman house then the Caulton Residence - Backyard Pool<br/><strong>CONTENT:</strong>Dealing with family before picking up her beau.<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Gwynn<br/><hr/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/c/c7/Hailee-steinfeld-ten-thousand-saints-sundance-portraits-january-2015_1.jpg)</div>Miriam Goldman hung up the phone just as her three year old niece Bethany managed to snatch the big smartphone out of her hand. “Hey!” she exclaimed before Bethany jumped off her lap. “Give that back!”<br/><br/>“It’s<em>mine</em>now Auntie Miriam!” the little one said with a smile.<br/><br/>“Is that so,” Miriam said standing up. I guess I’ll have to…” she swooped in and ran her fingers against the girl’s side. A cascade of screams and giggles followed. “Tickle you until I get it back!”<br/><br/>“Hahahahaha! Daddy! Daddy! Make her stop!”<br/><br/>Elijah put his hands on his hips with a grin of his own on his face. “Oh I think Auntie Miriam will only stop only when she gets her phone back.” Miriam stopped long enough for Bethany to do just that. “Okay go see Mommy and Grandma, Bethany. Daddy’s gotta go outside with Auntie for a minute.”<br/><br/>Bethany took off like a rocket out of Miriam’s room upstairs at the mention of Grandma. It never failed to irk Miriam just how much her mother would spoil Bethany the day after being an unforgivable bitch to her. Still, at least she was decent enough to feel embarrassed for being jealous of a three year old. “Better ‘go outside’ in the back. If Mom sees you’re smoking here, she’ll flip.”<br/><br/>“So will Deborah. Luckily, we’re right here.” Miriam’s oldest brother opened the patio door of her room and the two stepped out. “You know, you don’t have to be late. We’re not leaving for two days. There’s plenty of time to take pictures with everybody before we go.”<br/><br/>Miriam snorted as she closed the door. “Yeah right. If I don’t make Mom and Dad happy they’ll call and text me every ten freaking minutes after I leave for the party. Plus Dan is leaving tomorrow morning and Sam will leave once him and Dad get at each other’s throats. Since he’s been home for, like, sixteen hours I’m betting that will happen in the next twelve.”<br/><br/>“Good guess. You could set your watch to them fighting it out.” Elijah lit the cigarette. “How is Jeremiah by the way?”<br/><br/>“He’s good,” she said, as noncommittal as possible.<br/><br/>“Is he going to State with you?”<br/><br/>Miriam groaned. “Did Mom ask you to talk about this with me, Lije?”<br/><br/>Elijah tried to look offended. “No! What…” the facade didn’t last long. “God, you’re really good at that. You and Mom both.”<br/><br/>Miriam reached her hand out. “Give me a drag then I’ll tell you all about it.”<br/><br/>He pulled away from her with a grin. “Uh-uh. Bad enough I’m killing myself I’m not helping my baby sister kill herself.”<br/><br/>“Pay to play. I know<em>you</em>don’t want to deal with Mom’s shit either.”<br/><br/>Elijah gave up the cigarette and the siblings shared it as Miriam summed up the<del>torture</del>situation she was going to have to go through in the next two months. At the end Lije gave a low whistle. “Well, that’s a pickle isn’t it? Have you had a heart-to-heart with Jeremiah yet?”<br/><br/>“Sorta not really. I mean he told me about the Air Force but he hasn’t really said anything about if he’s going to go.”<br/><br/>Putting the cig out on the bottom of his shoe, Elijah chuckled. “Sounds you’ll need to smoke something a little more potent shit than this to deal with that.”<br/><br/>“Why? You got some of that shit with you?”<br/><br/>“Oh come on, Mirry. I don’t do that anymore.” Miriam crossed her arms and stared at him. “Okay, i don’t do that<em>much</em>anymore. And I sure as hell didn’t bring it with me from Rhode Island.” Their phones simultaneously came alive with texts. “Uh oh. Mom’s herding us up to the living room.”<br/><br/>“I better change I guess. See you up there?” Lije nodded and turned to go back inside. “Hey Lije?”<br/><br/>“Yo what’s up?”<br/><br/>“Thanks. You’re the first person I’ve told this to, really. Not even Gwynn knows how deep it is.”<br/><br/>“Wow you trust me more than Blondie. I’m flattered.” Elijah squeezed her shoulder. “You’re a smart girl, Sis. Everything will be fine.”<br/><br/>Fine. Of course it would be fine. What else could life turn out to be?<br/><br/>Right?<br/><hr/><div align="center"><strong>At the party…</strong></div><br/>Miriam had barely got out of the car before she squealed in delight. “GWYNN!” she exclaimed, dashing across the Caulton backyard lawn to pounce on her BFF. Jeremiah was left eating her dust before she collided with Gwynn in a tight hug. “We’re graduated!” Miriam said.<br/><br/>Though the two had an opportunity to snap one picture together right after graduation this was the first time they had to really cut loose. “Sorry i’m late but first things first: Selfie! We have to do our first graduated selfie!” Miriam made a gesture at her smiling boyfriend and turned to Marco. “Sorry Marco, I got to steal her for a minute.” As Jeremiah took his sweet time she turned back to Gwynn. “So what’s going on? Seems kinda quiet here for a party doesn’t it?”