His Cousin Miranda

"Miranda?" Billy looked across at his cousin standing outside the door. "Oh uh... hi there." She wasn't expecting her cousin to be the one opening the door, but both her mother and aunt were still fast asleep after last night's drinks, so Billy was the only person up in the house.

Miranda was quite a shy girl. She was a few months - almost a year - younger than her cousin and was currently a freshman at a local college studying history. She was very much your average nerd. She never cared much for athletics or popularity contests at school and devoted herself fully to academic pursuits. That didn't gain her a lot of admirers or friends, but it was what she had chosen, and she hadn't regretted her choice, although she did often wonder how it would've turned it had she had different interests growing up.

Her relationship with her cousin was rocky to say the least. For Billy, Miranda was probably his favorite relative. She was always soft spoken and calm and reserved, but always a joy to speak to the very few times he had actually bothered to ask about her. Yet Miranda harbored a lot of feelings of jealousy towards him. Things were fine growing up. She had actually liked the fact that he had sometimes taken the time to ask her about what she was up to. He was probably the only family member besides her parents who didn't immediately dismiss and ignore her at family gatherings. But things took a turn around the start of middle school.

Billy was just starting to get into sports and he was quickly excelling. It seemed like no matter what he did he was able to immediately pick up the required skillset and dominate with ease. Since there wasn't a lot of special achievement in the family, his accolades were always the talk of the table even when he wasn't around.

Now Miranda knew it was all bullshit. She didn't question his abilities, far from it. But she had been dominating spelling bees and mathletes for over a year before her cousin had started his first sport. At first she was the person who was always brought up when the parents discussed their kids. But Billy had inadvertently ruined that for her. Even her own parents would speak to her about his achievements pretty much on a monthly basis. She started out as proud in her academic performances and confident in her abilities, but slowly the lack of attention had driven her to becoming shy and reserved.

Miranda held a deep grudge against it. Not against him specifically, but against what he represented. Every time he overshadowed her without even trying, without even having to be there in person! Oh what she would give to take him down a peg, to prove to everyone that he wasn't the best, to prove to everyone that she was the superior cousin.

But she had kept that fantasy under wraps, and Billy had no idea she harbored those feelings towards him. How would he? She had never talked about it with him, and every time they spoke she put on a brave face and pretended to be ok. But deep down everything was different.

"Hi," Billy continued. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Well umm, mom left me a voicemail yesterday night, and uh she sounded very uhh intoxicated. I was worried so I came down to check up on her. She mentioned something about a big victory she was dying to tell me about? I don't know it was very weird."

Billy's heart sank in his chest. He couldn't believe his aunt had already spilled the beans so early on. "Oh uhm yeah I wouldn't worry about that too much she was uhhhh watching something on tv yesterday and she - I think it was boxing or something - and she uh got really into it and was also very drunk so I would just forget about it haha."

Miranda seemed weirded out by her cousin's behavior but tried to ignore it. "Oh well haha." She paused for a bit as if she felt awkward about asking her next question. Eventually she got the nerve and just blurted it out. "So uhm are you going to let me in or?"

"Oh fuck yeah I'm so sorry please come in." Billy was distracted as he blurted out the sentence before moving aside and letting his cousin in.