Death, Sex and the Girl Next Door

Two2

     Aleks's phone alarm went off at 7:30 the next morning. He didn't have to be in class until 10am but he had formed a habit of setting an early alarm on Fridays because he knew Jessica had a 9am class and sometimes, if he was lucky, she would catch a ride in with him.

He dragged himself out of bed and sauntered over to the window. He pulled back the shade and checked in on Jessica's window but her shade was still pulled down. As he was about to step back he noticed Jessica's dad letting the dog out the front door to do her morning business before he headed off to work. Jessica loved that dog, it was a Sheltie, and it was getting pretty old Aleks figured. He remembered when Jessica was given the dog as a Christmas present the first or second year after he had moved in with his aunt. She had named her Molly. The dog was slowing down quite a bit now and tended to not leave the Andrews's yard, so they would just let it out in the morning and she would do her thing and then lay in the grass until someone let her back in the house. Quite often the dog would shit on Aleks's lawn and then he would have to pick it up. If no one was looking he usually just flicked it back onto Jessica's lawn.

Aleks didn't bother showering; he had already done so the night before, after his aunt had been in to see him. The picture of his parents was placed back on his dresser where it usually was. He looked at it and started to recall the events from the night before when he heard his aunt yell at him to come down for breakfast. Aleks finished dressing and then made a quick check of his Instagram and Facebook accounts on his Mac before making his way down stairs into the kitchen. He mumbled good morning to his aunt as he walked past her and over to the coffee maker without so much as even a glimpse her way. He was still troubled by what had happened the night before and hated that she had this sick power over him.

"How did you sleep?" she asked him looking up from her IPad and pulling off her head phones.

"OK"

"What time is your class this morning? Do you work after or will you be home for dinner?"

"I have to work until 6," Aleks replied unemotionally. It's strange he thought to himself as he sat down and grabbed a piece of toast and spread some peanut butter on it. Here they are acting like perfectly normal people when they both know what they did last night and what they have been doing for the past 7 years. It was wrong but they both ignored it. Aleks stood up and muttered a see you later to his aunt and headed out the front door. As he was walking down the steps Jessica emerged from her front door as well. She stooped to pet the dog briefly and then walked down the steps and over to Aleks's car arriving at it the same time as he did. The dog followed her like a shadow onto the driveway and then lay at her feet.

"I thought you didn't have class until 10 on Friday's?" she asked. "Ya, I don't but I have some homework that I thought I would catch up on this morning. I can give you a lift if you want?" Aleks asked her trying not to sound too eager.

"Taylor's picking me up this morning, but thanks. You're so sweet Aleks," Jessica smiled back and gave him a little peck on the cheek. As she was hugging Aleks, Taylor pulled up in front of their side by side driveways with the top down on her older model red VW Cabriolet, tunes cranked up playing Kanye's latest "Famous." Another reason he disliked Taylor, her taste in music. Taylor was one of the "In" girls and Aleks was surprised that Jessica was hanging out with her. She was part of a little click that had run the high school they both graduated from a few years back. Her mother was Korean and her father was American. They had met when he was stationed in South Korea and moved back to the states when his tour in the army was finished. They had opened a dry cleaning business that had expanded into four locations and she liked to openly flaunt her money. Taylor was stunningly beautiful and knew it. There had been rumors throughout high school that she was either a lesbian or bi-sexual.

"Since when did you and Miss Selfie start hanging out?" Aleks asked with a hint of venom in his voice. He had never gotten along with Taylor or her group of friends and was openly vocal with Jessica about his distaste for her.

"Oh just relax Aleks. We're not that close, she's in the same Friday morning class and offered to pick me up and give me a lift. Why do you care?" Jessica replied with a teasing smile. Inferring that maybe Aleks was a little jealous.

"Hey loser" came a male voice from behind them. "I see you're still driving that piece of shit Honda. You need to get that oil leak fixed. It's ruining your aunt's driveway."

"Fuck you Lochlan," Aleks snapped back. Lochlan was the boyfriend of Jessica's younger sister Olivia. He and Aleks had developed a serious dislike for each other. Olivia had accused Aleks of spying on her and her girlfriends two summers ago when they were skinny dipping at the lake during a weekend camp out. Aleks had been using his telescope at the lake because you could see more stars when you were outside of the glare of the city lights. The fact that they were there at the same time was total coincidence but Lochlan and his jock buddies had roughed Aleks up the next day at school and Aleks had never forgotten it. Olivia was smirking at him as well and asked him how his star gazing was going. Aleks gave her the finger and turned back to Jessica but she was already opening the door to Taylor's car and waved back at Aleks as she closed the door and then sped off.

"She's never going to go out with you looser," Olivia chided him.

"You should just stick to your nerdy gamer friends, you're out of your league," Lochlan added. "And I'm serious about that oil leak; it's making a fucking mess where ever you park."

Aleks responded without thinking "Why don't you and your little slut hop on your motor bike and fuck right off, and if the rest of the world is lucky, maybe someone will miss a stop sign and take you both out."

Lochlan had been in the process of putting his bike helmet on when Aleks had shouted out that last line and it pissed him off. He started walking back over to Aleks but he wasn't quick enough. Aleks had hopped into his car and locked the door. Lochlan tried the handle and when he couldn't open the car door he swung his helmet at Aleks mirror and broke it off. Aleks thought about getting out but he was no match physically for Lochlan so he stayed in his car until the two of them roared off on Lochlan's motor bike. Fuck he hated them he thought to himself.

After taking a couple of minutes to calm down, Aleks opened his car window and attempted to put the side mirror back in place but to no avail. Frustrated, he started the car, threw it into reverse and stepped on the gas hard as he backed out of the drive way. With his driver's window still open he heard a dog yelp in pain as he felt the car's front and back tires go over what seemed like a speed bump. Shit he thought to himself, what the fuck was that. He put the car back into park and opened his door to see what he had run over.

When he walked to the front of the car he sawJessica's dog Molly lying motionless on the driveway. Blood was oozing out of its mouth and itsback hips and legs were a mangled mess, flattened from the Honda's tires. Thedog was still alive but it was in a lot of pain. Aleks got down on his kneesand held the dogs head gently in his hands as he whispered softly to Molly thatit was OK. He calmly ran his hand backand forth over the dogs head reassuring the wounded animal that it was going tobe alright. After a minute or so of watching and listening to the dog struggleto breathe, Aleks placed both hands around Molly's head and then snapped itsneck in one quick violent twist. Thedog's breathing stopped as did its wheezing. Aleks continued to stare at thedog for a few moments and then stood up and using his foot pushed the dog's nowlifeless body to the end of the driveway and out onto the lane so it would looklike she was hit by a passing car. Some of the dog's blood had dripped on tohis shoe as well as the driveway. Aleks washed off the driveway using the hoseattached to the side of his aunt's house and then methodically removed hisshoe, whipped the blood off with a napkin he had in his car and then put hisshoe back on. He looked around to see if anyone had seen what had happened.Confident that no one had witnessed his running over of Molly and her subsequentdragging to the end of the driveway; he got back into his car, rolled up thewindow and drove off to class.