Miranda's Relationship In The Book 'When You Reach Me'

In the book “When You Reach Me” Miranda and Sal have a close relationship that as the story goes on the relationship falls apart and comes back together. The relationship would of stayed stable if Marcus wouldn't of hit Sal. If Marcus did not hit Sal than Miranda wouldn’t meet Annemarie, Sal would not of ran into the road, and the laughing man would still be alive.
The reader can tell that Miranda did not want the friendship to end by the following quote, “Sal played basketball more and more and talked to me less and that. I asked him four hundred times times weather he was mad at me, or what was wrong, and three hundred and ninety-nine times he answered Yes, No, Nothing.”(Stead 33) Since Miranda was so concerned about Sal, the reader can

infer that Miranda cared about him. The reader san see this when she kept on asking Sal what was wrong even if he answered with the same word every time.
In another part of the story after Sal got punched it states “When I got us into the lobby Sal went straight to his apartment and closed the door on me. I knocked for a while, but louisa wasn’t home from work yet and he wouldn’t let me in.”(Stead 25) This is important because the reader can tell that Miranda is genuinely concerned for Sal’s safety after he got punched.
Even though it would of been great if Sal and Miranda were still friends, there would be no plot, and Miranda would not of meet any of the other characters like Annemarie, Colin, Marcus, the Laughing Man, and Julia. When Sal is expressing his
feelings to Miranda about their friendship he says “‘That's the thing Mira, it wasn’t normal. I didn’t have any other friends! Not real friends!’” Even though there friendship was great for Miranda, it wasn’t great for Sal. If Sal would of been satisfied with their realetship too, then Miranda would never of made any other friends and the there would be no plot. So even though this new change was not ideal for Miranda, it all worked out in the end.