“Hi,” she said with a bright smile. He looked up from the concession stand he was working. He usually worked the concession at the high school basketball games. It wasn’t the most glamorous job but at least it was something to do.
“Hi, what are you looking to get?” He took a quick glance at her and immediately her cuteness was overwhelming. He tried looking else where to keep from gawking and noticed she was with a group of people here for the game.
“Can I get umm, a large coke and some popcorn?”
“Sure, anything else?”
“Nope, I think that’s it.”
“Alright,” he said slapping his hand on the counter as he turned to get her coke and popcorn. The whole time he was thinking about how really cute she was and wanted to say something smooth yet flirtatious to her. He looked over his shoulder a few times to glance at her. She was standing there fumbling with her phone. She had short brown hair, pale skin and beautiful big brown eyes. She was fit and had a tight tiny frame of a body. Her smile was the most radiating thing you could see. It was large and welcoming, the type of smile you wish you could come home to when you had a bad day.
“Aren’t you in biology with me?” she said as she put her phone away in her purse.
“Uh, yeah. Mr. Peters’ class. I sit like two rows behind you,” he said filling the coke cup with ice.
“Yeah. I thought you looked familiar. I don’t think I know your name.”
“Joe,” he said as he placed the coke in front of her.
“Emily.”
“You’re new here right?”
“Yeah, just moved here about 3 months back. Trying to meet new people.”
“Hurry up Emily,” someone shouted from behind her.
He looked over her shoulder and saw the group of people she was with.
She turned and yelled, “shut up Corey or you wont get any popcorn.”
“Seems like you got plenty of friends,” he said.
“Oh yeah, well most those people are my cousins. I have a lot of family here. One of the reasons my parents decided to move here.”
“That’s nice. Probably makes the move here easier then, huh.” He grabbed an empty bag and began filling it with popcorn.
“Yeah, for the most part. I still miss my friends though you know and moving sucks. I still have mostly all my things in boxes. Lazy right,” she said smiling at him.
“Nah, not lazy. Just organizationally deficient.” She let out a small giggle behind her smile. “And moving to a new school does suck,” he continued. “I did it a few times with my mom when I was younger and it made it hard for me to make friends. But I’ve been here now for the past 4 years and I like it.”
“How about the concessions? Is this fun?”
“Well, not always because its work but I get paid by Mr. Ruiz so that’s nice and I get to see the games. But we suck though.”
She giggled and flashed that bright beautiful smile again that he was beginning to like seeing. He just wanted to keep making her smile. This was the first time he had ever talked to her.
“Well, I’m not much into sports but I think I can get into coming to the games. Its pretty fun doing the cheers and stuff.”
“Yeah its fun,” he replied as he continued to scoop popcorn into the bag.
“Good company and good concession stands right.”
He smirked and she looked at him with a confused smile and asked, “What, is that not the case?”
“Maybe good concession but definitely not good food. I mean look at these hot dogs. Would you eat that?”
She laughed, “ok, maybe you’re right. They do look like the skin of the real housewives of Hollywood or something,” he laughed at the image of old scabby tanned women with leathery cracked skin.
“But at least you got raisinets,” she said.
“That we do,” he replied as he placed the bag of popcorn down.
“So, its all gonna be $3.50.”
“Oh dang, good thing I’m not paying.”
“Are you just gonna walk off with it now.”
“Maybe I am. Aren’t my good looks at least enough to convince you to let me have the coke.”
“Heck no.”
She gasped in fake disgust, “are you saying I’m ugly?”
“No, for your good looks I would let you have the coke, the popcorn and a day old wiener, at least.”
She started laughing showing off that gorgeous smile of hers.
“Well, don’t worry. I won’t make you give me these and you can keep your day old wiener. My dad gave me some money to buy snacks. So its all good,” she reached into her pocket and handed him a five. “Oh and don’t tell my dad but you can keep the change.”
He smiled and right before she turned to leave he stopped her for a moment and said, “Emily…”
“Yea,” she replied.
“Don’t tell Mr. Ruiz then,” and he handed her a box of raisinets. She gave him that big smile that he liked so much by now.
A coldness on his cheek refocused him on the road. He didn’t notice his eyes were tearing up until one streaked down his cheek. The road seemed to last forever. He had a 2 hour drive in front of him still. His mind was a mess but focusing on those few sweet memories helped him concentrate. The road had been a long depressing straight line but he knew he was coming up to a stretch of twist and turns with the road winding up the mountain side. He always got nervous driving through the mountains. He found comfort in the memories he had with her even though it brought with it so much pain. He wouldn’t forget her, he loved her. He knew that much. Even if she rejected him at first.
They were at the carnival with friends and the two of them went on the Ferris wheel alone. He saw this as the perfect opportunity to ask her something he’d been meaning to ask for a few weeks now.
“Emily, can I ask you something?” he said in a nervous tone and before she could answer he asked, “do you like me?” He had finally built up enough courage to ask even if it had taken weeks of constant will. She looked at him with endearing eyes and replied, “Yea I like you Joe but not in the way I think you mean. Maybe one day but right now I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”
He felt the sting of rejection crawl up his spine. At that moment he wished he could disappear or jump out of the moving Ferris wheel. “Why not?” he asked.
“I dunno,” she said looking down fumbling with her nails. “I’m just not ready to make that kind of commitment to anyone you know.”
He understood. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to. He took a risk and came out on the short side of it. If anything he came out of that rejection with more of an endearing heart for her.
The flash of another oncoming car took him out of his trance like state of thoughts and memories. He had loved her but she had lied to him. She did commit to a boyfriend and his name was Todd. He was the reason why she was gone now, why she was dead. But he would make sure he would do what needed to be done. He would make Todd pay. He didn’t like thinking about Todd, it just filled him with anger and hatred. He preferred to think about her but it was painful. He missed her so much. He reached into the back for a bottled water and accidentally brushed against a hand. He jerked away forgetting it was there and grabbed the water. After taking a gulp of luke warm water he looked into the backseat to a sleeping man, tied and gagged. “We’re almost there Todd.” The anticipation was building under his skin. There was a part of him that didn’t want to do this but his devotion for her made him unwilling to abandon his endeavor.
He finally arrived to the turnoff, an old dirt road that continued into the woods of the mountain. The road was only wide enough to fit one car. At the end of it laid an old wooden cabin. He got out of the car. Opened the rear door and began dragging Todd into the cabin. Todd began to wake up. He had a welt on the back of his head from where Joe had hit him. Joe took off the gag. Groggy and hazy he began mumbling, “yerrr, heyyy, wwwhattss gooing on, hey! Help! What is this! What’s happening?!”
“You’re facing your reckoning Todd.”
“What are you talking about? Who are you?” he asked looking up at Joe. “Is that you Joe? Let me go, what are you doing?”
“It’s too late Todd, nothing can stop this.”
“Stop what?! What’s happening?” he began to writhe around like a worm with his bindings, fighting for any ounce of freedom but he was tied too securely.
Joe opened the front door to the cabin and dragged Todd across the floor into the middle of an empty living room. “This is my uncle’s old cabin. No one comes up here anymore, so it’ll be just us two.”
Todd’s face began to curl in fear as the gravity of the horrific situation began to set in. This was real and Joe had a terrifying determined will permeating from his eyes. It sent desperate chills of fear throughout Todd’s body.
“Why am I here Joe?”
“Because of Emily,” he replied opening a closet door and pulling out an old rusty axe, a shovel and a butcher’s knife. He began inspecting the knife with surgeon like care. “My uncle, back when he still used this place, used to hunt for all his food. You know, like how the pioneers did. And you needed big burly knives like this one to chop up some of those thicker pieces of meat. He left a few knives behind.”
“Joe, I don’t know what you’re planning to do but put the knife away, okay buddy, put it away.”
“And my uncle,” he said completely ignoring Todd, “taught me how to cut up our game. How to give those big swings to split the meat in one swipe,” he continued as he acted out the downward motion with the knife.
“Joe goddamnit! Listen to me! You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes I do!” he growled, “you’re the reason Emily is dead. You!”
“What Joe?” Todd said looking up at him in utter confusion, “Emily’s not dead Joe, she’s alive. What are you talking about?”
“She’s dead and you’re gonna pay Todd.”
“She’s not DEAD Joe!” he said in horrific desperation.
“Shut up Todd!”
“Joe, listen to me. Emily is alive. She went away for the weekend but she’ll be back. I promise you she’s still alive.”
“Aren’t you curious to why she hasn’t called you or texted or anything Todd?”
“Probably forgot to or phones dead, bad reception or any number of other reasons Joe.”
“I wondered Todd,” he said as he picked up the axe, “I wondered why she stopped talking to me. I was her best friend and maybe even one day her boyfriend but then I found out why. It was because of you Todd. You took her away and I was cast aside. Now you’re gonna pay. She died because of you. I didn’t want to do it but when I became nothing in her life I had nothing to lose. She became dead to me after that.”
“Joe, oh my god! You didn’t…”
“You’re the reason her life ended. If she had never met you she would still be here.”
“Joe please…don’t…Don’t please,” desperately letting out his last plea as he began crying uncontrollable tears.
Joe went into the empty kitchen and began dragging a black bag across the floor. “Look Todd,” he said as he opened the bag revealing a face surrounded by body parts. Her feet chopped at the ankle lay by her cheek and her hands lay sprawled across her forehead. Emily’s eyes were still open, looking straight at Todd.
“Oh My God! No! Why Joe! Why!”
“Because I loved her you goddamn fool!” he yelled as he approached Todd with the axe in hand. “See this axe, I did most of the work with this,” he said reopening the front door of the cabin. “Animals love the smell of bloody flesh.”
“Don’t kill me Joe…please don’t,” he said in a mess of bawling dignity.
“Oh don’t worry Todd,” he replied placing the gag back into Todd’s mouth. “I’m not gonna kill you,” he said as he pulled out a revolver from his back pocket. “I’m letting you live with this,” he continued as he put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.
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