Revenge is Optimal Justice

            Janilsa  and Larry  had been friends for almost 10 years.  They had met their first year of college and now at 28 were not only still friends but actually closer friends than they were in college.  Janilsa had mistrusted men throughout her life.  Even though most girls always looked at Larry as the exception to horrendous men, Janilsa reserved judgment.  Larry had spent his life hearing from parents, “You’re the first guy I’ve ever trusted my daughter with”  The girls his age were no difference.  Many got drunk around him and shared a bed knowing Larry wouldn’t touch them.  In college, most of Larry’s friends were girls and he had shared a bed with almost all of them.  Of course, if you asked Larry, he would use the phrase “Slept with them” purposely understanding that there is a different meaning to that expression than its literal meaning, which is the only way Larry meant it.  Despite Larry and Janilsa being close friends and he having slept at her house on several occasions, Janilsa had never slept with Larry by any definition.  Larry was always a little bothered by this.  It’s not that he wanted Janilsa to trust him; he didn’t trust anybody, so could respect that neither did Janilsa.  He just kind of wanted to just so he could say that he slept with all of his close female friends. 

On one occasion in college, Janilsa and her fiancée went out drinking with Larry in Manhattan, NY.  Janilsa and her fiancée lived in Long Island and Larry lived in the city (Manhattan).  Janilsa had a reputation of being a violent and crazy drunk.  Today was no exception.  Larry was the only one that promoted her drinking because he believed that it finally let her release all of her demons inside that he felt she never released while sober.  This was despite Larry almost always being the one that Janilsa’s violent episodes were directed.  This Larry not only didn’t mind, but encouraged.  He knew he was quick enough to block Janilsa’s punches, so if she only tried to hit him, nobody would get hurt including Janilsa who didn’t know how to punch without hurting her wrist. At the end of the night, Janilsa’s fiancée told Larry he was too drunk to drive and wanted to take a nap in his apartment before driving he and Janilsa back to Long Island.  Larry readily agreed but when they approached Larry’s building, Janilsa refused to go inside.  She was adamant she wouldn’t step foot in Larry’s apartment, so her fiancée drove drunk back to Long Island without incident.

Janilsa and Larry’s friendship went this way until they were 27-years-old.  That’s when Janilsa, Larry and two of their mutual female friends decided to go to Europe together.  To Larry, the other two girls were in his highest hierarchy of friends and Janilsa was just a hair under them.  Reason being Larry was very affectionate and so were the two girls so Larry could more be himself around them and give them passionate and affectionate hugs whereas with Janilsa it was normally just enough so that Larry wouldn’t complain.  When Janilsa saw Larry in JFK, she walked up to him and gave him a big affectionate hug for the first time in her life.  Larry was taken back by this but enjoyed it thoroughly.  It was at that moment, Janilsa had moved up to the same hierarchy as the other two girls.  Larry was vocal about how he was surprised to receive a real hug and Janilsa responded, “Well, now we’re traveling together so it’s okay.”

                After that moment, Janilsa would hug Larry affectionately regularly.  Europe proved to make them even closer since Janilsa was the only person who didn’t bitch about rooming with Larry.  Larry was shocked by this because he had shared a bed with the other two girls on constant occasions, before the trip they said they had no problem rooming with him yet the second they landed and went to dinner they were vocal about how much they dreaded rooming with Larry.  Janilsa just said, “Fine, I will then” but that wasn’t how it happened.  At the end of the trip, Janilsa was the only one that didn’t completely enrage Larry, she wrote that off as Janilsa being the only one of the three that had a brother so knew what to expect.  Larry wasn’t so sure he bought this explanation.  The only problem Janilsa and Larry ran into in Europe was one night at a bar, they posed for a picture in which Larry had his arm around Janilsa, the picture was taken, and Larry lifted his arm picking up Janilsa.  Janilsa yelled at him and refused to get within arms reach of him until Larry pulled her aside and told her that he would obviously not do it again given how pissed she was.  Then things went normally.  Larry knew that Janilsa didn’t like to be picked up but he also had many situations in which women say they don’t like something, someone does it, and they smile and barely pay lip service not to do it.  The girls never really get mad so Larry always took these statements with a grain of salt, but he knew Janilsa well enough to know that she meant what she said, if she said something bothered her, it really did. 

 

When Larry and Janilsa roomed together, the beds were pushed together as they normally are in Europe.  Every night, Janilsa would pull the beds apart before going to sleep.  Larry would hope one night she’d be too tired to do so, but she never was.  He made a small victory with the hug but there wasn’t full trust there.  Janilsa would just tell Larry that she didn’t like sharing a bed with people, but Larry pointed out how he had seen her share beds with her female cousins and one other girl on the trip.  Janilsa still claimed that although she did it, she didn’t enjoy it but Larry knew it to mean that she doesn’t like sharing beds with guys.  Even her fiancée Janilsa claimed she just “tolerated” when they were together.  The other thing that Janilsa claimed was she didn’t like when people touched her feet.  Larry saw this to be accurate because he was sitting back on a chair and one of his friends asked to pass the camera but Larry didn’t want to lean forward.  Janilsa, who was sitting near Larry, reached her foot out and wrapped the cord of the camera around her foot and swung it over to Larry so he could reach without leaning forward.  When Larry removed the camera from Janilsa’s foot, which were covered in socks, his finger grazed her foot and Janilsa violently flinched.  Larry smiled and needed no further proof that just like being picked up; Janilsa was dead serious about hating when people touched her feet. 

                Over a year after Europe, Janilsa texted Larry at around 11PM on a work day.  Janilsa still lived in Long Island so when she worked late she would stay in the city with a friend.  Because of this, she always had a change of clothes with her with toiletries and everything she would need to get ready for work the following day.  She figured Larry would probably still be awake so asked if she could sleep over.  Larry was ecstatic, Janilsa had never slept over at any place he had lived in New York and now she was.  He loved hosting his friends but he took the incident with her fiancée back in college as evidence Janilsa would never sleep over Larry’s apartment.  He made up the couch figuring that Janilsa would still not want to sleep with him even though he had a king sized bed.  He was right, Janilsa slept on the couch while Larry slept in his bed, he would have offered her the bed and he slept on the couch, but it was the middle of the summer and there was no air conditioning in his bedroom but there was in the living room with the couch. 

 

A couple months later, Larry had the three girls from Europe over at his apartment both as a house warming party and to celebrate the end of his marathon training as he had completed the marathon two days before.  Janilsa had just started dating someone.  On an unrelated note, Janilsa recently started drinking again as she had been three years sober.  Although Larry accepted her in her drunken state, pretty much nobody else did so she quit.  Every girl brought a bottle of wine and by the end of the night all four bottles were empty.  It was a work night so the two girls left Larry’s apartment at around 9PM but Janilsa said she was going to stick around for a while.  Larry and her talked and kept drinking and Janilsa was extremely drunk.  Larry kept telling her that she could stay there and he wouldn’t touch her.  Janilsa refused because she had planned to go to her significant other’s place.  When the time came, Larry helped Janilsa down the stairs and put her in a cab to go to her significant other’s place. He went back to his apartment and started watching TV when about 5-10 minutes later the buzzer went off.  He hit the intercom and Janilsa had returned to his place.  He buzzed her in and the alcohol had hit full force now.  Janilsa could barely walk. Larry placed her in his bed and removed her shoes and socks out of habit since he didn’t enjoy sleeping with socks on.  Larry contemplated sleeping on the couch but Janilsa fell off the bed.  He picked her up and put her back on the bed but she rolled off hitting the side of her head on the floor before the rest of her body followed.  Larry was relieved when she rolled around and said, “Owwie” because that meant she wasn’t hurt that badly.  He picked her up again, placed her in his bed and restrained her until she passed out.  He then got ready for bed and slept next to her not ignoring the fact that he was finally going to get to sleep with Janilsa.  At first he couldn’t fall asleep because he was shocked that Janilsa chose not to go to her significant other’s place but to return to Larry’s while she was in a cab.  He took this to mean that Janilsa was more comfortable with him than the significant other’s but that didn’t make sense to him.  He wrote it off as not many people that she had met in the last three years, the significant other included, had seen her that drunk.  Maybe it was too early in their relationship to reveal drunken Janilsa. 

 

Larry woke up the next morning, showered and got ready for work before waking Janilsa up.  Janilsa was shocked that she was waking up in Larry’s bed.  She asked how she ended up there and Larry told her the events of the previous night.  Janilsa explained her return as, “I didn’t know where I was going” when Larry put her in the cab.  Larry thought back and although he vividly remembered telling one cab driver where she was going, he drove off before Janilsa got in.  This is a common mistake tourists make in New York, so the next cab he hailed, he put Janilsa in first before telling the cab driver where she was going.  For the life of him though, he couldn’t remember if he told the second cab driver.  He still didn’t believe the story because Janilsa had been over to the significant other’s place more than his but she still knew his address and which buzzer to buzz when she got to his.  He let this go and fumbled around trying to get Janilsa comfortable as her bag was at the other place so Larry had to go out and buy a tooth brush and iron so Janilsa could get ready for work.  Janilsa didn’t say anything to Larry but she was very upset with him.  In one night, Larry had done three things that she knew Larry knew she didn’t like; he picked her up, touched her feet and slept next to her.  Larry didn’t really feel bad about any of these things.  He couldn’t in good conscious leave her laying on the ground, the feet thing maybe he could have avoided and sleeping next to her he saw not only as completely innocent but also necessary since he had to make sure Janilsa didn’t fall out of the bed again.  Janilsa didn’t see things like this and had no sympathy for Larry because he knew Larry was a black and white thinker so he should understand that never means under no circumstances.  Larry could read this reaction in her face and when Janilsa vowed she’d go back to never drinking again he knew that she was upset.  It took him nearly 10 years for Janilsa to be comfortable around him but now, because of one night, Janilsa just looked at him as a normal typical guy that takes advantage of women when they are drunk. 

They left together and Larry saw it as a good sign that even though she was in a hurry and ran down Larry’s steps out of his building, she waited for him to get down before continuing to find a cab.  Larry didn’t go at her pace because he was still kind of sore from his marathon run a few days before.  When Janilsa got in the cab, she asked Larry to go with her so he did even though he preferred the subway and despite what many New Yorkers claim, he swore that unless it’s really late at night, a subway is always faster than a cab.  Janilsa came to the same conclusion in a half mile of the three mile journey to where she was supposed to sleep so she told the driver to stop at the subway station and she and Larry took the subway to their destinations.  Larry noticed that the hug good bye was the same as the hugs he got in college.  All his work erased by one night.

 

Larry’s fears were confirmed when Janilsa hadn’t contacted him in the two weeks since she stayed over.  He kept wrestling with himself if he should apologize but he was against apologizing when he thought he would do it again.  If in that situation again, Larry would still pick up Janilsa off the ground and although he probably wouldn’t remove her socks or sleep with her, he still didn’t think that was very culpable.  He decided to just address what he believed was the main issue; she felt violated that Larry did things to her while she was near unconscious or actually unconscious that he knew she would be against.  To Janilsa, she let herself be completely at Larry’s mercy and he took advantage of her.  Larry kept wrestling if he should call Janilsa, he by nature wasn’t a very good caller, but he didn’t really feel comfortable bringing up to Janilsa that she thought he violated her especially since he never actually received confirmation that Janilsa really did think that.  If she didn’t he certainly didn’t want to put the idea in her head.  Perhaps, she felt it was just as justifiable and innocent as Larry did. 

 

A short time later, about a month since the house warming party, one of the girls from the Europe group organized a dinner between them all.  Larry and Janilsa both went and Larry knew that Janilsa, like Larry, was punctual and the other two weren’t so he would have time alone to speak with Janilsa.  When Janilsa got to the restaurant she greeted Larry the way she had in college.  Larry rolled his eyes and said, “Do we need to talk?”

“Yea but not in front of other people”

“They’re not here yet, it’s just us.”

“Look…I just…..felt….well….”

“Like I took advantage of you” Larry said.  He hated euphemisms but badly wanted to use one here but he blurted it out.  He intended on waiting for Janilsa to form her own words but he knew she was uncomfortable and his desire to try to make her ease her uncomfort trumped his desires.

“Yea’
                “Look, I’m sorry, I know you don’t like being picked up and sharing a bed, but I really don’t think I had a choice.  But whatever, if you feel raw about it, or you don’t believe me about what happened because you were too drunk to remember, I’ll turn the tables.  I’ll go to your house or you come to mine, if you can get your hands on a roofie, than bring it.  If not, we’ll use your taser.  I’ll render myself unconscious either by taking the roofie or shocking myself and then you can do whatever your conscious will allow.  Ideally, you should be drunk when you do this because I was when you were in the similar situation with you.  So, since you were completely at my mercy while my inhibitions were suppressed due to alcohol, I will put myself in the same situation with you.  I’ll even sign a waiver and since your dating a lawyer, this would be easy for you to draft up, that no matter what, I will not press charges with what you do to me, even it results in my death.”

Janilsa was shocked by this.  She knew Larry knew how violent she was when she was drunk.  The only reason Larry was okay with her trying to punch him was that Larry was quick enough to block but now he’s proposing to get her in that violent state again and then be restrained so he couldn’t block anything that she wanted to do to him.  She was still pretty pissed at him but felt bad about saying yes to this.  She, however, couldn’t actually form the words to refuse.”

Larry purposely kept his mouth shut after he made the proposition.  He had training in sales and recruiting people in politics.  Although he was really bad at it, he knew one rule was after you make the pitch, you shut up for the next person that speaks loses.  He could literally see Janilsa contemplating his proposal and that she wanted to say no but couldn’t.  She instead said, “Why would you want to do that?  You know how I am.”

“I love you Janilsa, I don’t want you to think that I’m this scumbag the way you think all men are.”

“I don’t think all men are scumbags’

“I don’t believe that but whatever”

Janilsa smiled and said, “Okay whatever, let me think about this.”

“Fine”

Janilsa continued, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Janilsa, I know how you are, if you agree you won’t get even, you’ll win.  What you do to me will definitely be much worse than what I did or what you think I did to you but yes, I’m sure.  I’m willing to take responsibility for my actions real or perceived.”

“Okay.”

The dinner went uneventfully and after a couple days, Janilsa agreed on the condition that Larry couldn’t tell anyone about their agreement.  Any visual injuries he endured he would have to have a cover story.  Given that Larry wrote stories as a hobby it wasn’t a problem as he already had the story.  Since Janilsa didn’t trust Larry he invited him to Long Island to do it there.  Larry hopped onto the LIRR, he would have about an hour commute to think about just how stupid he was being.  Larry didn’t fear death and he believed in justice.  He fully expected Janilsa to treat him as if he had raped her but he knew that if he did survive this, he’d get his friend back, which is what he wanted.  Although he knew that Janilsa generally believed everything he said because she knew he didn’t lie, he wasn’t too convinced that Janilsa completely bought his story.  She also knew that Larry used fancy rhetoric to say something that people will misinterpret even though technically he hadn’t said what they were thinking.  She considered this lying but knew Larry didn’t.  It was how he got around admitting to things he didn’t want to admit to.  Janilsa, however, could see through his fancy rhetoric better than anyone but the way Larry described what happened as she saw no tricks in the speech.  Still though, Larry had to run on the assumption that perhaps Janilsa believed that Larry passed one by her this time. 

 

He arrived at her house and Janilsa wasted no time.  She knew Larry’s chosen drink was gin and tonic so he gave him a gin and tonic that she had made previously ensuring that she was very liberal with the gin.  He also handed him a roofie pill and placed the waiver next to the drink.  Larry knew that Janilsa could easily procure the roofie as her family owned property and businesses in East New York, which is a very dangerous neighborhood and their employees or tenants were not the type of people you wanted to cross.  Larry looked around to see if her brother or anyone else was in the house.  It was a big house and he couldn’t take a tour but he wondered if Janilsa had back up in case Larry decided not to go through with it or tried resisting.  Janilsa had contemplated this but she knew Larry was a man of his word and she didn’t want anyone stopping her from getting all her frustrations out on Larry.  She also knew that nobody she could call for back up approved of her drinking.  Larry sat down and looked at Janilsa.  He was not a very emotional person but he was sad that it really did have to come to this.  He stared at his friend, someone that he loved as a friend and would do anything for and was met by an intense stare that seemed to say, “You said you’d do it, now do it.”

Larry read over the waiver and then signed it.  It was exactly what he said it was supposed to be, a blank check that she could do anything she wanted without any liability.  Larry narrowed his focus on her lips.  In college he had always thought Janilsa had the most kissable lips he’d ever seen.  Since graduating, he couldn’t really engender that same emotion as Janilsa kind of sold out in the corporate world and exchanged her baggy clothing and Phat farm for designer suits and dresses.  Larry argued which Janilsa he liked better, the current more feminine version or the tough nosed ebonic-speaking, bandana wearing college girl.  He never decided but he definitely knew that the feminine version loved him back a lot more than the ghetto college girl and since the feminine one was more comfortable with him, it gave the edge to her but he tried to be objective.  Right now, he saw the Ghetto girl, for the wealth manager wouldn’t help her do what she wanted to do.   At his apartment when he had picked Janilsa up and held her in his arms he looked down and saw her lips the way he had in college.  Even in the suit, she still had them.  Right now, he saw them again.  He contemplated that this may be the last thing that he sees because he wasn’t sure if he’d wake up after taking the roofie.  He took a deep breath and popped in the roofie and took a big chug of his gin and tonic.  Despite it being made incredibly strong, he didn’t take long to drink it.  He maintained his focus on her lips and as he felt himself getting dizzy and about to lose consciousness he sized up Janilsa one more time reconfirming that he could still see the girl he found sexy back in college before refocusing on her lips and saying one thing to Janilsa before letting himself lose consciousness. 

Janilsa didn’t say anything.  She half expected Larry to clarify what happened and try to soften her position but was relieved that he didn’t.  He had come completely accepting his fate.  She had not taken a sip of alcohol as she couldn’t be drunk before Larry got there and risk him having her in a drunken state all over again.  She waited for him to take the roofie and then poured herself a shot of rum which she took down.  She got up and grabbed a bottle of wine and poured herself a glass patiently staring into Larry’s green eyes.  She didn’t find them attractive; she just thought to herself that in kid’s stories, monsters have green eyes just like Larry.  She vaguely realized that Larry didn’t seem to be looking back into her eyes but could tell he was concentrated on something.  He also knew it wasn’t a confrontational look as a stare down may be.  He just stared and drank his gin and tonic without saying a word or looking away.  Suddenly Janilsa noticed Larry’s eyes glazing over.  She had been drinking her wine pretty fast but not as fast as Larry drank his gin and tonic.  As she stared at him, she saw his eyes glaze and he said while making a fist with his right hand, “Remember, when you throw a punch, keep your wrist straight and firm creating a straight line between your knuckles and your elbow.  Use your hips to guide your arm not your arm” as he demonstrated in the chair before closing his eyes and falling sideways out of the chair and to the floor. 

Janilsa had envisioned the moment Larry lost consciousness constantly since she agreed to this.  It was always him either felling forward onto the table or leaning back in the chair.  In both situations, she would get up, put her foot on his chest and kick him back letting the chair fall back with him.  Now that he had fallen out of the chair, that plan was out the window but she used it to anger her further.  Even though Janilsa had become more feminine, she still wasn’t too comfortable in heels. Today she made an exception; she put on a pair of stiletto heels and took a shot of vodka, successfully carrying out her plan to mix alcohols to get drunk quicker and more violently.  She managed to get her balance in her stilettos and started kicking Larry repeatedly in the side.  She stepped over his unconscious body and repeated on the other side of him.  She then lifted her foot and stomped down on his chest.  Immediately she saw blood as her heel had cut Larry and even though she was drunk, she knew that this was not something she should continue.  She removed her heels and resumed stomping on Larry’s midsection.  She then drove her foot down into Larry’s testicles.  Since Larry had no reaction, Janilsa knew that he wasn’t feigning unconsciousness.  She straddled him and grabbed his shirt with her right hand and pulled his head up.  She was left handed and made a fist with her left hand.  She stared down at her fist and realized that her wrist was indeed bent.  She straightened it making the straight line Larry had talked about.  She practiced moving her hips to guide her arm a couple times aimed at Larry’s face.  She felt she had the hang of it and then started punching at Larry’s face violently and repeatedly.  She didn’t know if her hand didn’t hurt because she was drunk or because she had learned to do it correctly or a combination of both.  She struck hard and fast until she got tired.  She sat back and started panting.  She looked down at Larry and said, ‘Thanks for the advice, but I’m not even close to finished with you asshole.  I bet that you like that I’m straddling you right now.”

As she said the last sentence, it brought out raw emotion again and this time she leaned forward and swung both her fists into Larry’s face repeatedly.  She shifted her body down and saw that Larry, like always, had his two pocket knives clipped to his waist.  She removed one and opened it.  She put the blade across Larry’s neck making sure it was the side and not the sharp parts.  She slid it along each side of his neck and said, “It would be so easy.”

Instead she put the blade to Larry’s face and made a small incision before trying to close the knife and then tossing it to the side as she didn’t know how.  She got up and put her stilettos back on and kicked at Larry’s legs.  She lowered his arms to his side and kicked at his biceps and forearms.  It took a lot of her strength but she managed to roll him onto his stomach and removed her stilettos again before stomping on his back from his shoulders to his toes.  She started feeling bad but took it as the alcohol wearing off so she took another shot and managed to roll Larry back onto his back.  She went to her kitchen and took a roll of duct tape out.  She raised Larry’s arms above his head and put a strip of duct tape across his forearms and attached it to the floor.  She put a few layers on before reinforcing the duct tape by putting strips over the duct tape attached to the ground so that it couldn’t be peeled up.  Ideally she would want Larry on a surface but she wasn’t strong enough to lift him as he was her.  She repeated this with each of his limbs.  She then put a strip of duct tape over his mouth and went to her room and changed into a baby blue dress.  Now it was time for the hard part; waking Larry up.  She went into the kitchen and got some smelling salt that she had gotten previously.  She went over to Larry and put her stilettos back on and stuck the smelling salt by his nose hoping it would work.  Larry’s eyes shot open and he shook his head and tried to get up but realized he was constrained.  Janilsa stood over Larry and stared down at him smiling.  Larry remembered where he was and why he was here, his body hurt all over.  He looked up at her and saw that she still didn’t seem content. His body hurt all over and he couldn’t even imagine what she did but was happy to wake up.  Janilsa said in a eerily calm tone, “Now Larry, I know how much you love me in baby blue, so I felt like it’s the least I could do for you given that you agreed to this voluntarily.”

Larry nodded; he was in too much pain to speak.  He had shortness of breath but was happy to be awake.  As he looked at his constraints, he couldn’t help but think Janilsa wasn’t done.  She confirmed this by continuing, “Now, I know that whatever you did to me, I wasn’t conscious for.  I wasn’t in any pain when I woke up so no lingering effects and if whatever you did to me hurt me, I didn’t know because I was unconscious.  Unfortunately, I will not be doing you that favor.  I want you to feel this, torturing you is kind of pointless if you can’t feel the pain.  What I did to you while you were unconscious you will probably feel in the next few days but what I am going to do to you, you may not.  I couldn’t take that risk, so you’re conscious now.” And she gave a really big smile, which Larry would have loved in nearly any other setting.

                Larry looked around.  Janilsa dropped to her knees and slithered down to Larry’s waist.  She unbuttoned his pants and yanked the crotch apart unzipping it.  Larry didn’t really expect to be stripped; she grabbed the sides of his pants and pulled down.  Larry managed to lift the lower half of his body.  Janilsa had a grip on both his boxers and pants and lowered them just so his scrotum was visible.  Larry could feel massive pain in his scrotum from when Janilsa stomped on it.  Janilsa got up and eased the toes part of her heels onto Larry’s scrotum and shifted her weight to that foot.  Larry squirmed and couldn’t help but scream but his voice was muffled by the duct tape.  She looked horrifyingly at Janilsa but she was still smiling.  He regretted agreeing to this.  He always figured he would just be unconscious, wake up, and have no idea what happened.  Living it was much much worse.  He couldn’t plead with her though because the duct tape stopped any words from being coherent.  Janilsa feigned innocence as she put her hand to her mouth and said, “Oops, my bad”

                She kicked her heels off and went back down to her knees and lowered her body to Larry’s waist.  She reached into her purse, which was beside Larry and took out her stun gun.  She said, “The reason you’re here is because you thought with the wrong head.  This will change that.”

                She clicked the stun gun to release the current and jammed it into Larry’s scrotum.  Larry violently fought with his constraints as he screamed.  Janilsa moved it up to his penis and then released the button stopping the current.  She walked over to her kitchen and grabbed a large pitcher of water and a cloth.  Larry laid back moaning for he was in the worst pain of his life.  Janilsa walked over to him and put the cloth and the pitcher beside him.  She went over and pulled his pants back up.  Again, Larry managed to lift the lower half and then regretted doing anything to help her but it was instinctual.  Janilsa straddled Larry again and lied on top of him.  She kissed him softly on the cheek before ripping the duct tape off and then jammed the cloth over Larry’s mouth before he could say anything.  She held the cloth in place with her right hand and picked up the pitcher of water.  She poured some water over the cloth and watched as Larry squirmed underneath her.  She removed the cloth and Larry coughed violently pulling his head to the side.  He panted and looked back and said, “Janilsa…”

                But she shoved the cloth back over his mouth and again poured water on it.  This continued until there was no water left in the pitcher.  She put the duct tape back over Larry’s mouth and went back to her kitchen to get a mop.  She mopped up the water around Larry and then returned it.  She came back with a chair and placed it on the floor above Larry’s head.  She went outside and picked up her hose.  She barely turned the water on and kept adjusting it until it was dripping every few seconds.  She brought the hose into her house and placed it over the back of the chair and positioned it over Larry’s forehead.  She put towels next to Larry’s head on the ground and watched to ensure that the water would drip on Larry’s head.  She said, “Good night Larry, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite.” And walked upstairs to her room and passed out on her bed. 

                Larry hoped that the Roofie may still take effect and he’d pass out so he couldn’t feel the torture.  He recognized that first technique as water boarding and the current one as Chinese water torture.  He saw an episode of Mythbusters on Chinese water torture but the results were a little inconclusive for him.  Although they said it really is horrendous, the subject that they strapped down never told them to stop.  She said later, “I was new to the show so I didn’t want them to think me a coward but I would never do it again.”  Larry took this to mean that it wasn’t too bad.  Even though Adam, one of the main mythbusters, when they did it to him without constraints didn’t last long before he got up and literally ran away.  The girl that was in his current situation didn’t call it off.  Instead they stopped the experiment because they felt bad when they saw her face and how pained she looked and couldn’t in good conscious keep up the experiment.  To Larry, since they were testing if it was effective as a torture method, she should have not cared about what she wanted but, by self-preservation, screamed “stop.”  After all, the point of torture is to get someone to tell you something they don’t want to, even if it’s committing treason against your country, which for soldiers is the worst thing to do.  Larry felt soldiers’ willingness to not commit treason would be greater than her not wanting to look like a coward in front of her new colleagues.  Now that he was in the situation, however, it truly sucked.  It wasn’t something you could just get used to….water dripping on you when you’re trying to sleep no matter how tired you are, will stop you from sleeping.  Unlike the girl in the show, however, there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop it.  It was a very long, painful, excruciating night.  Maybe if he hadn’t gotten beaten up, he could manage to fight through the constraints but he couldn’t in his current state. 

 

                Janilsa woke up the next morning.  At first she was a little groggy but then she shot up as she vaguely remembered what she had planned to do.  She was still in her baby blue dress which she took as a sign that she had done what she was thinking of doing.  She had gotten advice from some of her friends about the Chinese water torture.  She never said Larry did anything but told them what they would do if a guy had taken advantage of them while they were drunk and that’s what one came up with.  She didn’t think she’d actually do it, but she quit drinking because of how often she did things while drunk that she thought she wouldn’t ever do.  She ran downstairs and saw Larry taped to the floor and the hose above him.  She sprinted over and shoved the hose to the side; she was visibly shaking as she wiped the water off of Larry’s face.  She ran to the kitchen to get a dry cloth and wiped his face dry.  She pulled at the duct tape and then stopped herself.  She gently removed the duct tape from Larry’s mouth.  She looked down at him and just saw a blank expression.  Larry looked like shit, there were bags under his eyes and his face was flushed.  She looked at Larry’s restraints and at him, all she could see was anger in his eyes but there was a tinge of relief.  She said, “Yo, I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

                “Not really”

                Janilsa pulled out her phone and was about to call 9-1-1 but stopped thinking that Larry may press charges.  She remembered the waiver he signed and finished the call.  The waiver didn’t make her feel any less guilty.  She had gone way too far.  She grabbed Larry’s knife and cut the duct tape connecting his arms and legs to the floor.  She peeled it off and threw it away trying to destroy any evidence before the cops came.  She told him that she had found Larry badly beaten up, which wasn’t a lie.  She sat next to Larry and lifted his head into her lap and stroked his face.  Larry lied there accepting the compassion but he was in really bad shape.  Tears streamed down Janilsa’s face and she said, “Larry, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what to say, I feel like shit.”

                “Me too”

                Janilsa cried harder.  Her whole body was shaking, she truly felt remorse.  She said, “What do we tell the cops?”

                Larry had replayed his story so much in his head to the point he had forgotten it wasn’t true.  He did this before coming over and even in his state, he could muster it.  He simply said, “I walked in on someone trying to rape you.”

                Janilsa saw where he was going.  She would just be vague with the cops so details wouldn’t be conflicting with what Larry said.  She knew that she could play the card that she’s too distressed to speak about it and that wouldn’t be a lie.  Janilsa lowered Larry’s head to the ground and draped her arm over him and lied on his shoulder.  Larry managed to wrap his arm around Janilsa and let her cuddle with him.  Janilsa draped her leg over his and buried her head in his shoulder and cried hysterically.  All she could think about was how Larry didn’t deserve what she did to him.  She didn’t believe Larry raped her and that was the only way to justify what happened.  Now, she wanted to be punished for what she did.  Janilsa kept repeating between sobs that she was sorry but Larry didn’t respond.  He wanted to tell her it was okay but right now, he just couldn’t do that.  The cops came and immediately began attending to Larry.  They loaded him onto a stretcher and brought him out of the house.  Janilsa followed and they let her stay in the ambulance.  The cops questioned her on what happened and she repeated Larry’s line, “I had people over last night, Larry walked in on one of them trying to rape me and they got into a fight, I locked myself in my room but my phone wasn’t with me.  When I heard it got quiet, I gained enough courage to run to get my phone and I called you.  As soon as 9-1-1 answered I found Larry on the ground, he told me the guy was gone, so I stayed with him till you came.

                There were a variety of holes in the story.  According to Janilsa, she made the call before she knew the alleged rapist was gone but made no mention of it to the 9-1-1 operator.  Also, she immediately told them someone was hurt, which didn’t allow for her to discover Larry and have him tell her that he was gone.  Nonetheless, Janilsa stuck to this story.  The cop felt bad for her so didn’t press too hard about these holes. 

                As soon as Janilsa was done with the interview, she went back into Larry’s room and waited with him.  She held his hand and again started crying and said, “I’m so sorry”

                Larry was feeling much better.  Whatever they put in his IV was working.  He was no longer in as much pain and had significantly calmed.  He said, “Janilsa, it was my idea.”

                Janilsa shot up and shook her head, “I know but you didn’t know I’d do this.”

                Larry moved his head in an unsure gesture and said, “Maybe not exactly, but I knew it would be vicious….just not the extent of it.”

                Janilsa sized him up and asked guilt heavy in her voice, “You want me to leave?”

                Larry chuckled, “Janilsa, the entire point of this was to get our friendship back to the way it was, why would I want you to go?”

                This made Janilsa feel worse.  How could she be comfortable around him after what she did to him?  Now she wouldn’t be comfortable through no fault of his, which made her feel worse because it was all for nothing, Larry couldn’t even get what he wanted out of it.  This wasn’t entirely true, Larry would get her not to be mad at him anymore, but that was small consolation.  “Is there anything I can do?”

                “Staying with me is enough.  The doctor said nothing’s permanent”

                Janilsa stayed with Larry the entire day he was in the hospital.. He was released later on with broken ribs.  Everything would go away in time.  They prescribed him pain killers, which he knew he wouldn’t take.  Janilsa paid for them and offered to pay any hospital bills not covered by his insurance.  Larry readily agreed.  He wasn’t too mad at her, he knew she was contrite and it was, after all, his idea.  The only regret he had is he began to realize that it may have been for nothing because Janilsa was visibly still uncomfortable around him but it was for a different reason.  He thought the only way to combat this was forgiveness but he knew that Janilsa was like him, even if the victim of your actions forgives you, you don’t forgive yourself quite so easily.  Larry had actually thought less of other people he harmed for forgiving him so readily when he never had.  Larry slept over Janilsa’s house again.  Her brother had moved out and had a queen size bed where Larry normally slept when he slept over.  He got ready for bed and lied down making sure to lie on his non-injured side.  He had managed to sleep a lot in the hospital, but he was still tired.  Janilsa got ready for bed and walked into Larry’s room and lied down next to him.  Larry noticed but said nothing, he knew this was an olive branch and he’d take it.  Janilsa had decided that she would do more than just sleep with him.  Luckily Larry was sleeping on his side facing the rest of the bed, and by extension now, her.  She turned her back to him nestled herself back and pulled Larry’s arm around her midsection and rested it on her stomach.  Janilsa knew Larry liked to cuddle with girls and although she despised it, she would let Larry do this as penance for what she did to him.  Larry extended his other arm under Janilsa’s neck as an extension of the pillow and closed his eyes.  Sleep came very quickly to him.  It took a while before Janilsa got comfortable but she managed to fall asleep eventually.  The next day Larry went back to his apartment.  

 

Larry told his story to the cops and to his co-workers.  Luckily he noticed the cut on his face before having to tell it so incorporated the attempted rapist wielding a knife into his story.  This was helped because Larry could explain how he had difficulty fighting off the attempted rapist given that he had knives on him.  Janilsa waited a week before inviting Larry to dinner.  They went to dinner and talked and Larry acted the way he always acted.  Janilsa knew him to be the most consistent person she’d ever met but was still surprised, yet comforted that he acted no differently.  This helped her accept what happened and move on.  She was no longer afraid of Larry, so if she was ever in a bind, she would call him and ask to stay at his house.  After dinner she asked to sleep over not because she needed a place to stay but because she was going to do a similar thing as Larry did with her.  Put herself in a situation that he could exploit and see if he did.  At first she thought his sleeping over after she went to the hospital was doing this but that was at her house, he didn’t know if her dad or someone would come over.  Now it was his place.  She told him while sober that she would share a bed with him.  Larry chuckled and said fine, they drank and Janilsa stopped herself before becoming extremely intoxicated but still acted like she was.  She let Larry carry her to his bed after she feigned unconsciousness and then he left the room to get himself ready.  All he did was remove her shoes and then he lied down next to her and went to sleep with no contact with her.  She slept feeling really comfortable; she again looked at Larry as an exception to the general rule that all men are scum.  After that, their friendship was officially back to what it was before the house warming party.  In the end, Larry got exactly what he wanted. 

Impulsive Freedom

            Larry and Yvonne had been friends for 10 years.  They met their Freshman year of college and remained close when college ended.  As is common with school friendships, they didn’t see much of each other as Yvonne was working and going to graduate school.  She generally disliked men so when she did have a moment to breathe, she often wanted to have a girl’s night out, which obviously didn’t include Larry as he is a male.  When she did meet up with Larry, they picked up where it left off and their plutonic friendship didn’t really diminish.  At one point, Larry did try to make a deal to meet up once a month on the 15^th but this failed miserably as Yvonne most often had to cancel.  Finally Larry gave up on his plan and conceded that there would probably be months at a time he didn’t see Yvonne.  This was unlike college when they saw each other at minimum once a week. 

 

            While they were in college, Yvonne had a psychopathic boyfriend by the name of Ben.  He often abused her both verbally and physically but she would never admit to the physical part.  Like most abusive woman, Yvonne would explain large bruises on her legs and face from dancing mishaps or bumping into something or just denial of knowing how it happened and writing it off to her just bruising easily.  Larry noticed that her easily bruised skin didn’t bruise as much when she finally called it off with Ben.  He never mentioned any of this to Yvonne because while she was with Ben she became enraged and vehemently defended him, like most abusive woman.  When she wasn’t with Ben she yelled at him for bringing up a horrible time in her life.  As the years progressed however, Larry realized she always picked bad men to fall in love with.  One time, Yvonne got fed up and actually blurted out an excuse to this, “Bad men are more confident and that’s what I’m attracted to.” 

            This is a common belief among women who fall for horrible men because they don’t realize that their don’t-care-about-anything rebel attitude refers to them as well.  At this point, Larry was done trying to help Yvonne, he knew she would never admit her problem and even when Yvonne realized the guys she was with really were despicable, she never gave Larry any credit for his prognostication but projected it on another close friend who would always praise the guy when she was with him, but attack him and claim she always felt that way when Yvonne realized he was wicked. 

            Larry commonly had a misconceived notion of himself as being violent.  This is because as a child, he would get in weekly fights.  Larry was a dork, and was picked on a lot as a kid, and his reaction would to be respond violently.  It got him into trouble but he believed himself to be better for it.  This is why he had no respect for current anti-bullying campaigns and people blaming bullies for weak pathetic people who kill themselves because they got picked on.  Being bullied gives you the freedom to be yourself and that mental maturity helps in the long run if you can get through it.  If you can’t, well you probably would have failed later in life anyway.  What Larry didn’t realize is that after 5^th grade, he outleted his anger to writing dark, violent stories.  Throughout high school and college, this manifested in an overactive imagination where when someone wronged him, he visualized horrendous things he would do to them in his head knowing that his imagination was so vivid that he often times forgot it didn’t really happen.  When this happened, he realized that his subconscious responded as if it did so the situation was moot as he had already gotten his revenge, even though in reality he didn’t.  Although back in his early friendship with Yvonne, Ben ruined many evenings and he had met Ben on occasion, he never attacked him physically like he wanted to.  His reasoning was that if he did, Yvonne would never talk to him again, and he didn’t have many friends and was not a sociable person so making new ones was hard, so he cherished the friendships he had.  Losing Yvonne as a friend would have devastated him.  So, he let Ben be and just tried to make sure that when he was around, Ben and Yvonne were never alone together.  Ben even complimented Larry on this to Yvonne, but Larry didn’t take it as a compliment.  He knew what Ben knew, Larry was powerless because he owned Yvonne and Yvonne controlled Larry when it came to their relationship.  Nowadays, Larry hadn’t heard about Yvonne being with Ben in eight years so it was a non-issue.

            One day, Yvonne and Larry met up for drinks.  When they were done, it was late at night and Larry walked Yvonne back to her apartment.  Yvonne lived on the Hudson River in Battery Park and there weren’t many people around late at night.  There was a running route where joggers gathered during the day but as the weather was cold, they weren’t out as much.  As Larry approached Yvonne’s apartment, Yvonne’s eyes widened and she jumped back.  Larry didn’t realize it but there was a silhouette near her apartment.  To Larry, it was just some random guy but Yvonne recognized that silhouette anywhere.  It was Ben.  Ben approached Yvonne not worrying about Larry and said, “Yvonne, can I talk to you alone for a second?” as he did 10 years ago very frequently when she was with a man. 

Larry smiled and said, “No, you can’t” finally realizing who it was

Ben turned to Larry and looked at him contemptuously as if to say, “we’ve done this before, you’re not going to do shit.” And said, “Come on man…”

Before he could finish, Larry darted out his arm and grabbed him by his two carotid arteries in the neck.  This is the most effective, non-lethal way to choke someone as the brain is deprived of blood and the brain uses 20% of all the bodies’ blood.  Larry also knew that if you controlled the neck, you control the body.  He pulled Ben forward and lowered his head driving Ben’s nose into the top of Larry’s head exploding it on impact.  Ben backed up and Larry shuffled toward him and drove his entire body with a right jab straight into Ben’s hands that were covering his nose.  To Larry’s surprise, Ben didn’t fall, he took several steps back but only glared at Larry.  He stepped forward deliberately and took a swing at Larry, which Larry ducked under and then unleashed two punches to Ben’s kidneys.  Ben swung his swinging arm backing hoping to backhand Larry but Larry ducked under once again and slammed the heel of his palm into Ben’s solar plexus.  Again Ben backed up as the wind had been knocked out of him.  Neither man heard it but Yvonne was pleading with them to stop but she dared not step in between them.  Ben came at Larry out of more fury than brains.  Larry twisted his body and put his left arm on Ben’s left hip and Larry’s right arm on Ben’s right hip and then twisted back using Ben’s forward momentum to twirl him upside down.  Larry interlocked his hands on Ben’s lower back, Ben’s legs instinctively wrapped around Larry’s neck and his head was below Larry’s knees.  Larry looked down quickly to ensure that Ben’s head was indeed at Larry’s upper shin.  For the first time he looked at Yvonne, lifted his hands off Ben’s back and raised both his middle fingers at her before tightening his knees against Ben’s head and dropping to his knees.  Although Ben tried to put his arms out, it was too much weight to support both his and Larry’s falling momentum and his head crashed against the concrete sidewalk.  Larry leaned forward flattening Ben out on his back.  He got up and glanced at Yvonne who looked shocked. 

As Larry was certified in CPR, he knew that with trauma such as this, the most important thing to do was to secure the neck and make sure it doesn’t move.  That is why it was the one thing he wasn’t going to do.  He grabbed Ben by the head and twisted it as he used much of his energy to lift Ben dead weight by the head.  Larry had to resort to wrapping his arm around Ben’s head to get more leverage.  Ben was only a few inches shorter than Larry but they were the same weight.  Larry was running on pure adrenaline to lift Ben up but he was determined.  Finally he got him to a standing base, he pulled forward slightly and again diverted Ben’s forward momentum to get him up in the same position he had before.  This time Larry was in no hurry as Ben was defenseless.  He turned toward Yvonne and smiled before again flipping her off and driving Ben headfirst into the sidewalk once again.  If Ben’s neck wasn’t broken, Larry didn’t know if he’d be able to break it.  He got up and kicked Ben in the side of the head before walking off.  Larry took out his phone and played the Undertaker’s theme music from his phone as the maneuver he performed was the Undertaker’s signature move known as “The tombstone.”  To Larry, he didn’t believe Yvonne would ever talk to him again.  He was okay with that as he never really saw her anyway.  Unlike his college days, he was used to going long months without seeing Yvonne.  He knew that what he did was good for her even if Yvonne wouldn’t appreciate it. He walked off satisfied with what he’d done.  He knew Yvonne wouldn’t call the cops because she never called the cops when previously people had harmed her so why would she when someone harmed someone she knew?  He went to the train and went home knowing the next 48 hours would be stressful as the probability of being caught for a murder is cut in half after 48 hours.  He had seen enough real life shows to know, that murders were almost always spouses, close friends, or something of that nature.  Larry hadn’t seen Ben in over 8 years.  It was dark and nobody was close enough to make a positive ID except for Yvonne so canvassing the neighborhood wouldn’t help.  Still though, he couldn’t be certain, so he would just have to wait to see if he’d have to go to jail.  To him, it was worth it.  Yvonne was one of his best friends.  Larry knew his life wasn’t really going anywhere.  He was asexual, didn’t want to get married, had already seen 29 countries and was too afraid to leave his job for something else.  He knew that the years left would see more and more of growing apart from his close friends so killing for one of them and sacrificing his life were okay to him.

Yvonne watched as Larry walked off without turning back.  She was more confused than anything.  Seeing Ben most likely be killed in front of her was relieving to her.  It was a big weight lifted off her shoulders but somehow Larry didn’t see that.  She rolled her eyes at how little he understood about her and then looked back at Ben, looked at Larry’s walking away, and sighed.  Larry’s lack of attention to detail continuously baffled Yvonne.  He had just killed a man and walked off.  His fingerprints would be all over Ben’s clothing.  Yvonne was a smoker; she played back the fight in her head and realized that there is only really one place Larry touched.  She kicked Ben onto his stomach and took out her lighter and lit the back of Ben’s shirt.  She took her water bottle and dumped it around the area skidding her feet around so as to clean up any of Larry’s fingerprints from when he pushed himself off the ground to get up.  She stared at the East River and realized that dumping Ben’s body would be smart but there was no way she could lift him and calling Larry was out of the question.  Instead she just nonchalantly walked to her apartment and went upstairs.  To her, the only person that could implicate her was her door man but she had to risk that. 

Within 10 minutes, she heard sirens as someone had called in a body being burned.  She could smell it from her apartment and viewed it as a good sign because that means the fire got hot and burned some of the evidence.  It didn’t take long before the police came into her building wanting to canvass the area to see what happened.  Yvonne had been questioned about Ben multiple times so was accustomed to lying to the cops.  She claimed she noticed some people talking by the water but she didn’t pay them any mind.  The cops grilled her for any type of description but she kept denying she got a good enough glimpse.  The cops went away but she knew they’d be back.  As soon as they identified the body, it wouldn’t be hard to check records and realize that she had many complaints about Ben in the past.  The only thing that worried her was if Larry called her.  Right now, she needed to handle this and Larry couldn’t be associated with her in that time.  The next day, Yvonne got an expected visit from the police.  The cops had identified the body as Ben.  She hadn’t left her apartment or answered her phone all day knowing that anyone she contacted would be questioned about the murder and she didn’t trust anybody to keep their mouth shut enough in response to heavy questioning by the police.  She got called into the interrogation room and survived through the cops questioning her over and over again about Ben and their relationship.  She answered the same questions over and over again always saying that she hadn’t seen him in eight years, they used to date, she had no idea why he ended up at her apartment, it was probably to stalk her but she didn’t have any encounter with him that night.  The cops even claimed they had a witness who saw her talking with him but she still denied doubting the validity.  Eventually the cops had to let her go, knowing they had nothing to hold her as they did fabricate the witness.  Yvonne went back to her normal routine of work and school closely monitoring her conversations.  After a month went by, she went over to Larry’s apartment, rang the buzzer and asked to come up.  By this time, the cops could gather no new information and wrote the case off as cold. 

After the two days were over, Larry rested a little easier.  Before, he kept thinking that a cop would come to his door but it never happened.  He didn’t contact Yvonne because he figured she hated him for killing the man she loved.  He went back to his normal routine of work and watching sports.  He never felt guilty for what he did but he did have a burning desire to tell someone.  He wished he could discuss it with Yvonne but he felt that was unfair.  He needed to respect that his actions had the consequence of never speaking to Yvonne again.  It made him sad but he always came to the same conclusion that he did the right thing.  He searched the news but never found anything about Ben.   He found this odd as Battery Park was not a dangerous area so things like this didn’t happen often but nevertheless the news didn’t pick up on it.  About a month after the incident, when Larry had put it far in the back of his mind, the buzzer went off at his apartment.  Larry was shocked, nobody really came to visit unannounced and he hadn’t ordered food.  He clicked the buzzer and asked who it was.  He was shocked to hear Yvonne’s voice say, “It’s me”

Just to make sure he said, “Me who? Yvonne?”

“Yea” he heard back very sarcastically.

Larry buzzed her in and opened the door.  He lived in a 4^th floor walk up so knew he had time before she came up.  He looked around and his place was a mess as can be expected with a man who lives alone.  He didn’t have enough time to clean so even though he knew Yvonne to be a neat freak, she would have to endure.  Yvonne came in and sat down on his couch.  Larry offered her a drink and Yvonne wanted alcohol.  He responded he only had rum and beer, both of which he knew Yvonne didn’t drink.  Yvonne said, “Better go with a rum and coke,” knowing that Larry would definitely have soda in his apartment. 

            Larry made her the rum and coke and gave it to her.  Yvonne said, “Are you going to make me drink alone?”

            Larry poured himself one and sat down on the couch opposite Yvonne.  Yvonne extended her legs across Larry’s lap as she had done countless times before but this time Larry felt it odd.  She started, “You’re an idiot.”

            “Okay”

            “We need to rent a car and drive to your parents’ house in Cleveland right now.”

            “We both hate how each other drive”

            “Don’t care; I’ll be more focused on what I have to say to you.”

            “Why not just tell me now?”

            Yvonne gave him a dirty look, “Because you live in a small apartment in the city, which notoriously has thin walls.”

            Larry immediately saw her point.  His neighbor often times knocked on the wall when his TV was too loud. Even though he’s never heard him talking in his apartment, he could hear the door four floors down closing and people walking up.  If someone was in the hallway they may overhear something.  He got up and said, “There’s a car rental place on 87^th.”

            Yvonne and Larry went to 87^th Street and rented a car.  Larry took the driver’s seat and headed to the FDR over the George Washington bridge, where he would be on 80 for approximately 400 miles before he hit the Ohio Turnpike.  Yvonne didn’t waste any time; the second they were on the FDR, she started “So, do you know why you’re an idiot?”
            “Probably because of what happened to Ben, you’re going to come up with all this crap about how he’s got a posse and back up that are going to come and kill me yatta yatta yatta.”

            “Yea no”

            Larry believed this because when he would ask her if he wanted him to get physically involved she said no referencing all the back up he had.  Since this was dismissed so quickly and he was out of options, he said, “Alright why?”

            “Because you left a dead body in the middle of the sidewalk that had a lot of incriminating evidence against you.  But don’t worry; I cleaned up your mess.”

            “What?!”

            “Yea, I had to light that son of a bitch on fire to burn your finger prints off his clothes.  Then waste my water to pour on the area just in case it got on the sidewalk and then go past my doorman and to my apartment.  Do you have any idea how easily I could have been seen?  Not to mention, the cops have detailed files about me and Ben.  If you would have just stayed, we could have thrown his ass in the river and then the water would have concealed the evidence, he wouldn’t have been found for a couple days and we would have had time to think.  But no, you just stormed out of there like some cowboy in the Wild Wild West.”

            “I thought you would be mad at me and I didn’t want to deal with you screaming at me.”

            “Well you were wrong, and I couldn’t call you because then the cops would see my cell phone records as calling you shortly after time of death.  Thank God you were smart enough not to call me.”

            “I thought you wouldn’t want to speak to me again.”

            “Yea because you killed a man that had terrorized and stalked me for like four years.”

            “Yea, the one you claim to be in love with.”

            “I loved him, past tense”

            “Okay, I’m not quite sure it goes away,”

            “Well, I’m happy he’s dead.”

            “You never wanted me to get involved before.”

            “Because I thought you’d get hurt asshole”

            “I can see you’re not afraid of me.”

            Yvonne hit Larry despite the fact he was driving.  Larry didn’t lose control of the car but chuckled.  Yvonne continued.  “Why would I be?  You can’t hurt me”

            Larry nodded, and said, “So what happened?”

            “I got questioned by the cops repeatedly I kept denying.  Thank God nobody saw us and now I think it’s safe but you and I can never talk about this.  I just need to tell someone.”

            “We can tell people, but we need to make sure it’s in a private place so we won’t be overheard.”

            “Yea we should tell our closest mutual friends.”

            “Yea”

            “So, have you told anybody?”

            “No, I was always afraid someone would rat me out.  I didn’t want anyone to ask you.  To be honest, I was waiting till I went to Cleveland.  I know a couple people who would never go to the cops with this.”

            “Yea because they probably know about me and Ben.”

            ‘Yea but they don’t know you, so it’s okay.”

            “This is what I was most afraid of.  You suck at keeping your mouth shut.  Do me a favor, don’t tell ANYBODY about this, let me bring it up to people.  Clearly I know how to do this better than you as I’ve already lied to the cops.”

            “Yea, it’s a little worrisome how easily you handled that.”

            “How do you know it was easy?”

            “Because it wasn’t on the news, and you didn’t get arrested, I was never questioned, nothing came of it.”

            ‘Yea, unfortunately, the piece of shit you took care of gave me a lot of practice.”

            “That’s one good thing that came from him.  We’re like Bonnie and Clyde”

            Yvonne glared at Larry, “Except I don’t kill people.”

            “True”

            “You’d be in jail if it wasn’t for me.”

            “I agree”

            “Why did you flip me off by the way?”

            “Because I thought you still had feeling for him and you were routing for him in the fight.”

            “Why would you think that?  I was telling both of you to stop.”

            “Just assumed because of the way you protected him back in college,”

            “Yea well I’m not 19 anymore.”

            “Unfortunately, neither am I.”

            “By the way” Yvonne started in a soft vulnerable voice made to engender sympathy from men, “Thank you”

            Larry looked over and smiled and said, “My pleasure.”

            Yvonne nodded and smiled back, “I feel so free now, like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, the son of a bitch is dead” as she rose her arms.  Larry chuckled, Yvonne regained her composure and said, “You’re the only person I can react that way around so that reaction stays between you and me.”
            “Okay”

            There was a long silence as everything was said.  Larry changed the subject and said, “So, do you really want to go to Cleveland or should I turn around now that we’ve talked about this,”

            “No, go, I want to get away and I like your parents.”

            “Alright, I’ll call them and tell them we’re coming.”

            Larry called his parents and told them he was surprising them with Yvonne.  They spent the weekend there and then went back to New York.  Larry didn’t tell anyone but Yvonne mentioned it to trust worthy people that were close to both Larry and her.  They remained friends and things went back to normal, Larry didn’t see Yvonne very often but when he did, they picked up right where they left off. Nothing ever happened with the Ben murder case.  It stayed cold.