by Verne, Lara
“Call of Duty?” she questioned, “He plays it all the time.”
“Well,” I searched my mind for words, “I need to get him something that he’s going to cherish forever and be like ‘my girlfriend got me that’. You know?”
“I don’t know, actually,” she stood up from the couch. “But I think I’m going to shoot on out of here once he comes because I’m really not interested in seeing you two make out the whole time.”
I opened my mouth to speak but she cut me off.
“You might want to put that in water,” she suggested, referring to the flower, “He won’t be too happy if it dies.”
“Right,” I said, smiling to myself. I went over to the closet where Jeremy kept all the stuff we had but didn’t really need. I found a vase that would only hold a single flower, went over to the sink, filled it up with water and then placed the carnation in it. “Where should I put it?”
Katie rubbed her chin, trying to think. “How about over there?” she pointed over to the front door where a table stood, “You don’t even use it anyway.”
“True,” I agreed. I walked over to the front door and set it on the nearby table. It looked nice. As I stared at it, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and saw I had one new message from Jeremy.
‘You didn’t reply to my other text message, but I’ll let you off the hook. My hotel has Wi-Fi, so I can iMessage you instead of emailing you. I sold a house that costed 150,000 Turkish liras. That’s equivalent to about 85,000 US : ) ’
I smiled and replied instantly.
‘That’s great Jer, I know mom and dad would be proud’
Shoving my phone into my back pocket, I stared down at the carnation that I had just received. I smiled to myself, noting that I had secret admirer. “We should do something later. Something that does not involve strange men and alcohol.”
“Sure,” she agreed, standing from the couch, “Mark Riley is throwing a party tonight. We should totally--”
“Katie.”
She stopped mid-sentence and stared up at me. “Right,” she nodded, “We can…go see another movie,”
“Sounds great,” I smiled, “Text me the details.”
She threw her cardigan over her shoulder and gathered her things. “You think you’re going to be okay by yourself?”
“I’m a big girl,” I joked, “Besides, Sean is going to be here any minute.”
“’Kay,” She leaned in and pulled me into a tight friendly hug, “I love you girlie,”
“Love you too,” I murmured in her ear.
She unraveled from my hold on her and opened the front door, revealing Sean on the other side. “Well, look who we have here,” she said smugly, “Have fun you too!” She pushed past Sean, took a last glance at me before she headed out to her car.
“Hey handsome,” I greeted him. His blonde curly locks hung loosely over his forehead. His light colored lashes hid his cobalt eyes. He wore a blue hoodie from Aeropostale and a pair of old blue jeans. It was obvious he didn’t put too much thought into his choice of wardrobe. “Well, you look…lovely.”
“Try waking up at five every morning for swim practice,” he said sarcastically, holding up a bag from behind his back. “And I brought food.”
“Awesome,” I said, snatching the bag from him. “Did you get anything to drink? I’m all out of diet coke.”
“I still wonder to this day why you drink that stuff,” he mumbled, reaching into another bag and pulling out two bottles of apple juice. “It’s bad for you,”
I waved my hand, dismissing the subject. “Oh shush.”
“But we’re not eating here.”
“Why not?”
He scanned the house with his eyes. “Well for one, if we’re alone in your house, I’ll be tempted to do things,” He trailed off, “And second, I had something better in mind.”
“And that is?”
“We’re going to have a picnic,”
“In the middle of December?”
“In the middle of December,” he repeated.
“Are you crazy?”
“Yes,”
I eyed him uneasily before I finally gave in. “Let me just get my sweater.” I quickly jogged over to the hallway closet where Jeremy and I kept all our jackets, sweaters, and what not. I slipped it on over my t-shirt and went back to Sean. “Now, let’s go have a picnic in December!” I exclaimed.
“That’s the spirit,” he threw his arm over my shoulder and buried his head in my hair as we walked out of the house.
CHAPTER EIGHT - JACOB
She left the house with him, again. I really hoped she liked the flower I got her. I had to search several backyards to find the perfect one.
As desperately as I wanted to follow her to see where she was going with him this time, I needed to stay focused. As soon as they exited the driveway, I stepped out of my car and headed straight for her front door.
I reached under the welcome mat for the spare key and opened the front door without difficulty. The house smelt like gardenias, an odd choice, considering it wasn’t a very popular flower scent but nonetheless, it was beautiful.
My eyes drifted towards the pink carnation that was set in a vase beside me. So she had kept it.
I smiled sheepishly as I continued to tour the house, making my way to her bedroom. It was well organized, the walls were painted baby blue and it smelt like gardenias. I even took the time to notice a few of the white flowers sitting in a vase on her bedroom dresser.
I searched through her drawers in the order of their descent. The first drawer was her underwear drawer, which was composed mostly of Victoria’s Secret underwear. The second was filled with t-shirts piled on top of each other. The third was of sweatpants and other lounge shorts. The fourth was filled with pictures scattered everywhere.
I picked up one of the pictures and noticed how young she looked in it. Her brown hair was shoulder length and she wore glasses. Next to her in the picture was a male, obviously older, but the way his arm wrapped around her shoulder was protective. I concluded it was her brother.
In another picture, her arms were wrapped around her best friend, Katie. The ginger had tight curly hair and pale blue eyes just as I remembered from the bar.
A picture in the corner of my eye caught my attention. There she was, beautiful as ever, the perfect picture. Her long locks were pulled over her shoulder and her smile brilliantly made my lips twitch. She was just too beautiful.
I slipped the picture into my jacket pocket and closed the drawer. I stood up to my full height and examined the room more carefully. A trophy stood on her bedside table, labeled with the name of her school and the ranking. My eyes glanced up at the golden statue that held a lacrosse stick in its hand.
She played lacrosse.
I sighed, looking over the room once last time. I would need to investigate later when I had time. Right now, I needed to cover my tracks from previous nights ago.
Two Nights Earlier
Ellen’s parents were really starting to be a nuisance. They were filing way too much money into this investigation of theirs, that I wasn’t going to get a cut. I decided to kill them that night at the bank.
I jiggled the key in the lock and opened the door slowly, being extra careful not to make any noise. It was late at night. I was certain that the parents were sound asleep, which will make my job easier.
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my butcher knife as I crept up the stairs. I passed by Ellen’s bedroom, taking the time to look inside and reminisce. The room still smelt like her. Oh, how I missed her. I tightened my grip around the knife. She doesn’t deserve sympathy, Jacob. She didn’t love you. She deserved to die.
Continuing down the hallway, I slowly opened the door to the parents room. As suspected, they were in deep sleep. I walked over to the edge of the bed and raised my knife above the wife’s head. Just as I was about to strike it down on her precious little neck, something tugged on my leg.
“What,�
� I muttered, looking down at my foot to see a mutt biting on the hem of my jeans. It growled and shook his head, obviously sensing the danger that I caused.
I rolled my eyes, annoyed, and struck my knife down on the dog. It howled in result and let go of my jeans. “Thank god,” I mumbled, returning my attention to the wife to see that she was awake with wide eyes staring back at me.
She let out a slight squeal before I cut her off by pressing my palm against her mouth, muting her voice. The husband stirred next to her, turning on his side. She tried so desperately to get his attention but I slit her throat easily to prevent her from making a stupid mistake.
Her body went limp and fell against the pillow, her blood bleeding through the white sheets. The mutt was back again, tugging at my leg. I decided to end its life for good and stabbed it multiple times in its stomach.
“I hate dogs,” I said to myself, walking over to the other side of the bed and getting prepared to kill the husband.
As if sensing it, his eyes snapped open in shock. He scurried across the bed, over his wife’s dead body and ran towards the window.
I sighed in annoyance and ran after him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pinning him against the wall. “What is your problem?” I demanded, slamming his head back on the cement wall.
He struggled to speak, probably begging me to spare his life. I watched him curiously, as he turned his head to look at his already dead wife. He struggled beneath me, gasping for breath.
I squeezed tighter on his neck until he finally stopped struggling. The life drained from his body but his eyes remained open, staring blankly at me. I groaned in disgust and threw him to the ground.
This was supposed to be a clean, easy kill. Now all I could see was the blood on the sheets and the blood from the mutt.
I placed both of their bodies in a body bag and stored them in my trunk. There was no way I could leave all this evidence behind. I turned on all the stovetops as well as the oven and left it open. I poured gasoline in every room of the house until I walked out of the house and left the door open behind of me.
I quickly ran over to my car, got in and drove off. Just as I was about to turn the corner, I heard the boom. The house had exploded, getting rid of any existence that the McHannons even lived there.
My last stop of the night was the Lawrence River, most famous for its fishing opportunities. I dumped the bodies in the freezing water to be found by someone else and got back into my car, heading over to my long hair beauty’s house.
CHAPTER NINE - LIZA
“You know you’re crazy, right?” I questioned him, stepping down from the elevated sidewalk onto the mud.
He turned around abruptly, pressing his body to mine and said, “Crazy is my middle name,” He leaned down so that his lips were to mine, brushing over them ever so slightly.
Just as I was about to close the gap between our lips, he reached under my butt and picked me up bridal style. “Wouldn’t want to get your shoes muddy, now would we?”
“They already are,”
He remained silent until we approached the gazebo that stood in the middle of the park. He set me down gently and began to unpack our supposed breakfast--turned lunch. “How has the days been? You know, without me?”
I pulled my knees to my chest, “It was one night without you. I think I survived.”
He nodded in response, “You said you got flowers. From who?”
“I thought it was from you.” I said, “I can’t think of anyone else who would want to send me a flower. I mean, I’m Liza.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Sean encouraged, lifting my chin up so that he could see my face clearly. “Plenty of my friends are crushing on you.”
I scowled at him. I hated his friends with a burning passion. “I don’t like your obnoxious friends. They only care about Mountain Dew and sex.”
He rolled his eyes, stuffing a mouthful of noodles in his mouth. “They’re not that bad,” he defended. Pieces of noodles fell out of his mouth as he spoke.
I tried my best to ignore his bad eating habits. “Those jerks you called friends gave me hell through freshman and half of sophomore year. They only tolerate me because I’m your girlfriend.”
He pressed his lips together in a thin line, obviously regretting that he brought up the subject, “Liza…”
“Forget it,” I snapped. Sean and his friends bullied me most of the time I had been in high school because I was overweight. Eventually, I turned my life around, lost the weight, and became healthier. Sean had some sort of epiphany and here we are.
We sat in silence for what seemed like forever but was surely only minutes, before he finally spoke, “Babe, you haven’t touched your food.”
My eyes drifted towards the box of noodles in front of me. “I’m not hungry,” I said bitterly.
“Liza, I’m sorry--”
“I want to go home.” I announced, standing to my feet. “Take me home.”
He sat there, unmoving.
“I said, take me home.” I repeated.
“Okay,” he gave in, standing up as well. “You know I didn’t mean to bring it up. If you still want to go home then--”
“Didn’t you hear me?” I asked with a ridiculous amount of anger in my voice. “Take me home, Sean.”
“Alright,” he said, shoving all the food into the paper bag. “At least eat your fortune cookie.” He held it out to me.
I snatched it from his palm. “Can we go now?”
“Uh, yeah,” He fished inside of his pocket for his keys. “We can go,”
▪▪▪▪▪
Two days had passed and somehow, I managed to avoid Sean. He practically knew where I was every second of the day so I took this to my advantage by not being where he expected me to be. I came to school earlier than usual to get all of my stuff so I could avoid going to my locker. I ate in a bathroom stall because I knew Sean would try to find me and that was the only place he couldn’t enter. After school, I would head straight for my car, not allowing him to see me and never answered his texts or calls.
I admit, I was taking this to a whole other level but he deserved to see how life was without me. Maybe he will appreciate it more. Well, that seemed to be the plan until he stopped me in the middle of the hallway while I was trying to rush to my car. He pinned me against the lockers, one arm beside me to prevent me from advancing and the other holding onto my wrist.
“Sean,”
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he said, stating the obvious, “Why?”
“I have a lot on my plate right now, Sean.” I lied, “I have a huge test tomorrow that I have to study for, so if you don’t mind…” My eyes motioned to his tight grip on my wrist.
“Sorry,” he apologized, removing his hand from my arm. “Look if you just want to break up, I-”
“I’m not breaking up with you.” I interrupted, “I’m serious about that test so can I go now?”
“Yeah, I’ll walk you to your car.”
“I’m taking the bus,”
“I’ll walk you to the bus then,”
“No!” I protested, “I mean, I uh…you have football practice. You should get going, don’t want to be late, do you?” I quirked a brow while trying to fake a smile.
“I’m not going to be late.”
“Really?” I asked, “I heard the coach wants you off the team. He’s saying that you’re always late.”
“He can shove it up his ass,” he scoffed, “If I want to walk my girlfriend to the bus, then I can.”
“Sean,” I placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” I replied.
He smiled, “I’ll call you later tonight, okay?” he said as started to walk away.
“’Kay,” I mumbled to myself.
▪▪▪▪▪
As much as I wanted to think that I was perfectly fine with being in the ho
use alone, I knew I wasn’t.
Katie was unavailable due to her mom grounding her for getting an F on her history paper. Sean was the only other person who came into mind. Unfortunately, his car broke down and now his ape friend, Marcus, has to chauffeur him around.
I sighed, wishing that I had a pet to keep me company and not make me feel so alone.
I decided that I would be able to make something special for myself. Jeremy always did the cooking and I would eventually have to learn so now was the perfect time. As I walked into the kitchen, I noticed a folded paper on the floor. It must have fell from the carnation I had received a few days ago, though I don’t remember ever seeing a note.
