[Zatoichi]

Violet sat on her bed with her head in her hands. Her face was red and splotchy from having cried for the past hour. Her auburn hair, normally neatly brushed, was in tangles. She couldn’t remember everything from last night. Felicia had begged her to come along to a house party some college kids were throwing. She said she needed a wingwoman as a counter-agent to any wingmen. Apparently there was a whole kind of pseudo-science behind it all. Wingmen were supposed to be there in case the hot chick happened to have a less than appealing friend around. But, unknown to most, the less appealing friend was actually necessary if the two attractive and charismatic people were to hook up. Felicia had told her that she didn’t really have any unattractive friends, and that Violet was the closest thing to one.

Of course, Violet had protested, while ignoring such a backhanded compliment. She had just gotten past her college days, and more importantly, she was engaged. Plus Jason, her fiancé, wasn’t exactly the most trusting person. Hell, he had once screamed at her when he saw her kiss another guy on the cheek, before realizing that it was her younger brother. She no longer had any real male friendships anymore. Anytime she went out she had to have a list of people she’d be with, a list that didn’t include any straight guys. Still, it was a small price to pay to be with someone you loved. But what did it matter now? She had thrown it all away.

After much pleading and begging, Felicia had gotten her to agree to go with her to the party.

“Besides, hun, you never go out and do anything anymore. I think you could really use a good time. The last time I saw you, you seemed so depressed. ” Felicia said.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” said Violet.

Her excuse for Jason had been that Felicia had just broken up with her boyfriend and needed someone around for comfort. They were supposed to be having a stereotypical girl’s night in, eating buckets of ice cream, watching sappy movies, and burning things that her ex had given to her or left at her place.

When they got to the party, the place smelled of old beer and cigarette smoke. Shitty pop music blasted out of a crummy-looking stereo. It didn’t take Felicia very long to find a guy whose bones she wanted to jump. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately in Violet’s case, his wingman was nowhere to be found. After about twenty minutes and three drinks, the two of them figured out the desire to screw was mutual. They had asked Violet if she wanted to join them, but she passed on that opportunity. She had grabbed a new drink and began to look for a quiet, relatively speaking, corner to wait for Felicia to finish getting boinking out of her system.

She made her way out to the back porch, swaying as she walked. Outside she took in the fresh air, grabbing onto a railing to steady herself. Violet had set her cup down on the railing and put her hand to her head: it had been a few years since she had done any real drinking and she was already on her fourth mixed drink. I don’t know why Jason doesn’t want me going out to places and having fun if there are other guys around, she thought. It’s not like he has anything to be worried about. I’ve been faithful to him, I mean, what has he even got to be jealous about? I don’t think I’ve ever even given him a reason to lay a hand on me before.
A hand was placed on her hand on the railing and a voice said, “How’s about a refill beautiful?”

And that’s all she could remember. The rest was just a string of blurry images ending with her naked in bed all alone. After an uncertain amount of time, she dragged herself out of the bed, managed to crawl three feet, and puked on the floor. When no more came up, Violet crawled around the room searching for her clothes. When she had found most of them there was a knock at the door and a female voice called her name. It was Felicia.

“Violet are you in there? Can I open the door, I’ve been looking for you,” she said.

“Just a minute,” Violet said as she put on her underwear, shirt, and skirt. “Okay, come in.” The door knob turned; Felicia stepped in the room and flipped the light switch.

“Jesus Christ Violet, what happened to you? I’m gonna call the cops.”

Violet wasn’t sure what had happened to her, but guessed that because Felicia’s facial exp​ression looked like she had just seen someone get run over by a truck that she must have looked pretty awful. “No don’t, I just want to go home.”

Felicia hesitated as if she was unable to decide what to do. “Fine, but first we need to get you cleaned up.”

When Felicia had dropped her off, Jason wasn’t home, so she offered to stay with her. Violet thanked her, but told her that she just needed to be alone for awhile.

“Promise me you’ll call if you need anything, anything at all. I mean it. I’m really sorry,” Felicia said.

“It’s okay, I promise,” Violet said. Apparently satisfied with Violet’s answer, Felicia had hugged her and left.

***

The jingle of a cell phone ringing startled Violet out of her dreariness. It was Jason’s phone. That was odd, she thought. He almost never forgot to bring his phone with him. She went over to the phone but didn’t pick it up. The caller ID identified the person as Sarah. She didn’t know of any girls named Sarah that Jason knew. She stood, looking at the screen until it stopped ringing. She started to go back to the bed, but a beep sounded off, telling Violet that the phone had just received a text message.

Violet bit her lip and looked back at the phone. The message was from Sarah. It couldn’t hurt to look at it, she thought. She went back over to the phone, picked it up, opened the mail box, and checked the message from Sarah. It read:

Jason need to see you
urgent could be pregnant

Fresh tears sprung to Violet’s eyes. Her heart couldn’t believe what her mind was telling her. There must be some kind of mistake, she thought. The girl must’ve called the wrong number. But the caller ID wouldn’t have given a name if she wasn’t in the phone’s address book. Maybe she called the wrong Jason. It was a common enough name, there could be a million other Jason’s in the world for all she knew. She heard a door open and close. It was the front door.

“Hey Vi, you home?” said Jason. He walked into the apartment and heard sobbing coming from the bedroom. He headed in that direction, stopping only to toss his jacket on the couch. “Hey hun, you all right?” Jason opened the bedroom door and saw her standing there holding his phone in her hand. “Is something wrong with my phone?” When she didn’t answer he walked up to her and put his arms around her. “C’mon, tell me what’s wrong. You know you can tell me anything.”

“You got a call from Sarah. I didn’t answer it, but she left you a message.”

For the barest moment a look of anger came over his face. “And what did it say that seems to have gotten you so upset?” he said, looking her straight in the eyes.

“It said she needs to see you, that she might be pregnant.” Violet tried to focus her eyes on a spot on the floor, but Jason lifted her chin up with one hand.

“Oh, is that all,” he said. A smile formed across his face. “Sarah and I go way back, she’s just an old friend from high school.”

Violet thought she knew who all of his female friends were, even if there was quite a few. “Then how come you never mentioned her before?”

“Well, that’s because I didn’t want you getting jealous over me being close friends with another woman.”

Bullshit, she thought. She simply wasn’t the jealous type; that was his department. Something wasn’t right. “Jason, she said she might be pregnant.” He didn’t even flinch when she said that, but sighed instead.

“She’s been worried about that; her boyfriend doesn’t like to use protection. He’s kind of a dick, and a bit of a control freak. She just calls me up to have somebody to vent to. Now is there anything else that’s bothering you? And how did it go with Felicia? Did you guys have a good little pow-wow?” He ended their embrace as he asked his stream of questions, taking a couple of steps back.

Amazingly, tears once again began to fill Violet’s eyes. She almost couldn’t believe it. After so much crying, she thought she’d be dried up by now. “Last night I didn’t stay over at Felicia’s. She wanted to go out. I didn’t want to, but she insisted, said she needed a wingwoman. You see apparently there’s this whole science behind it.”

“What do you mean, you went out? To a bar?” he said. Jason looked ready to burst with anger.

Violet began to tremble, and started to back away towards the wall. She wondered if she should tell him the truth. Better to have it come out now than later on in life when it would be too late to fix. “No, to a party. But you see she found somebody really quick, and I was all alone, and I might’ve had too much to drink, and I might’ve done something with a guy.”

“What do you mean, you might’ve done something?” Hatred exuded from his words and Violet began to visibly shake.

“I don’t know, it’s all really fuzzy, and I can’t remember much. I don’t know. I might’ve done something for,” she got cut off as Jason approached her, put his right hand over her face and slammed her head into the wall. Fireworks exploded in her head, the room began to swim around her. She began to fall over, but before she did he grabbed her by the throat with his left hand and squeezed. She was running out of oxygen and managed to kick him in the groin, but was too disoriented to make it count. It was enough to make him let her go though, and she fell on all fours, coughing as new air entered her lungs.

“I’m going out for a while,” he said as he picked up his phone. “Clean yourself up before I get back.”

“You’re going to her, aren’t you? You’re a real piece of work, you asshole. You never did love me did you? So why be with me, because I come from a family with money?” Violet picked herself up and thought of the pistol that Jason kept in the safe in the closet. He didn’t think she knew the combination.

“You always need to screw stuff up, don’t you! Listen I’ll be back later. Maybe by then you’ll have gotten over yourself,” Jason said. He made his way out of the room and began to leave.

“Don’t come back!” Violet shouted. After a half a minute she heard the front door open and slam shut. She went over the closet safe and began to turn the dial.

***

It was two hours later when Jason finally returned. It had given Violet more than enough time to come up with a plan and a convincing story to tell the police. She waited in the bedroom with the gun loaded and lying on the bed, the safety off. All of the lights in the apartment were turned off. She watched out the window as his red Toyota pickup truck pulled into the small parking lot for the apartment building. She sat back down on the bed, gun now in hand and aimed at what would roughly be chest level if Jason were standing in the door way. She heard the front door open and footsteps come to the bedroom door. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could see his outline in the door frame.

“Violet, I’m back, did you do what I told you to?” Jason said softly.

Violet had hoped that he would assume that because all the lights were turned off she would be asleep and would not turn on the bedroom light. She squeezed the trigger twice, and heard the sound of a body crumpling to the floor. She smiled at what she had done. No time to enjoy this now, she thought. She went into the kitchen, turning on lights and knocking things over as she went, trying to make it look like a fight had taken place. She went into the kitchen, grabbed a cloth and used it to pick up a big kitchen knife she had laid out earlier. As she was putting the knife into Jason’s still moving right hand she thought anything is a small price to pay to be with someone you loved. But, after a while it all adds up.

[Zatoichi]

aww, finally there's a comment, but it's lacking of substance. I mean you're welcome, but what did ya think? And why has my internal voice suddenly picked up a bad scotish accent?

[Zatoichi]