Wreckless (2 page)

“Don't mind if I
do.”

She reached for the wine and walked to the
counter. After opening the bottle with a corkscrew, the wine
erupted, spilling to the floor before she could grab a wine
glass.

“Ahhh, come on!” she
yelled. The bottle felt slippery in her hand. She put it to her
lips and turned it up.

To her surprise, she heard
Teresa shouting from the other room. Jasmine choked at the melodies
coming from her roommate’s room. She then glanced at the near-empty
bottle.

“Dang! Don’t much come in
this bottle, huh? That's how they get ‘cha.”

Turning the bottle up
again, she took a few final sips. A steady knocking vibrated
against the walls and Jasmine knew it was Teresa's headboard. She
rolled her eyes and dumped the empty bottle. She opened the
refrigerator and popped the top on a Budweiser. She would be drunk
in a minute.

“It takes a dummy to make
you drink yourself stupid,” she burped and laughed.

Knock, knock, knock, knock
. . .

The steady drumming of the
headboard made Jasmine curious to see if Teresa’s door was
unlocked. So she decided to check it out. The closer she got to the
door, the more she could smell the scent of marijuana coming from
the room. Jasmine twisted her nose. She couldn't stand weed. The
musty smells were supposedly a good thing, but she didn't want her
house to be fragranced with it. The thought of what was about to
occur made Jasmine giggle.

This is for busting in my
room earlier,
she thought.

Jasmine twisted the
doorknob and barged in, singing an old Whitney Houston song
loudly.

“And I-E-I . . . will
always love you!”

The song sounded like a
train wreck coming from her mouth. She coughed and laughed, bending
over and looking up to see the looks on Teresa’s face and her
playboy for tonight. In a split second, she recognized Teresa’s
client. It was the man of her dreams -- Maurice Desmon Jones.
Seeing him sent Jasmine into a minor trance. Her breath shortened,
her lips thinned, and she stood erect.

“What the . . . ?” Jasmine
yelled, looking into his eyes.

“Get out of here!” Teresa
yelled.

“You tramp!” Jasmine
exclaimed.

Jasmine ran toward Teresa,
clenching her throat in a vice grip, squeezing and pulling her out
of the bed. Teresa kicked and choked up a scream, slapping Jasmine
across the face. Jasmine slammed her into the bedroom wall causing
blood to run from her nose and mouth. Maurice stood to his feet and
quickly put his clothes on.

“Yo!” he screamed. They
were not listening. They pulled, yanked, and screamed at each
other. “Yo, I’m outta here, man!”

Jasmine reached for
Teresa’s hair, but Teresa held her arms up to protect herself.
Still, Jasmine was able to get a handful. Using extraordinary
strength, she smashed Teresa’s head into her nightstand. A loud
crack followed and Teresa fell to the floor, causing her to shed a
tear. Jasmine stomped on her repeatedly, but there was no movement
from Teresa.

She grabbed a handful of
Teresa's hair and yanked her head up to look into her eyes. A blank
stare gazed back at her -- she was lifeless. A few moments of
silence passed as reality sunk in. What had Jasmine done? She tried
to catch her breath. What was she going to do now? She burped and
re-tasted the wine.

“
Look
what you made me do!” Now in another realm, her life would be
forever changed.

The doorbell rang again,
snapping Jasmine out of her trance. The room she was standing in
was a complete nightmare, but she didn't care.

The guest at the door had
the worst timing. Jasmine saw Saundra on the other side of the
door, Teresa's sorority sister. Jasmine didn’t like her, either.
Because
Saundra and Teresa were always
together, Jasmine was convinced they were two peas in a
pod.

“Can I help you?” Jasmine
asked in the calmest voice she could muster. Saundra stuck her head
in the door and looked around.

“Is Teresa
here?”

“No, she's
not.”

“Really?” She pointed to
the
parking lot
. “Her car is outside. Are
you sure she's not in?”

Jasmine's lip twitched.
“You know what? You might be right. Why don't you take a look for
yourself?” A small grin crossed her face.

“Great. That’s
better.”

Jasmine widened the door
to let Saundra in. She needed an accomplice and the thought of
calling Maurice for help crossed her mind. Jasmine slammed the door
and locked it. Saundra looked back over her shoulder. An
uncomfortable expression crossed her face.

“Why don’t you have a
seat, Saundra? I’ll check in the back for you. Would you like
something to drink?”

“Jasmine, are you
okay?”

“Yeah -- why do you
ask?”

“You’re bleeding,” Saundra
said, pointing at Jasmine’s face.

Jasmine touched her lips
and covered her mouth. “I’ll be right back.”

She ran to her room and
into her closet. Reaching above the shelf, Jasmine pulled down a
shoebox. She grabbed two bite-sized pills Teresa tried to force her
to take when Jasmine pledged to her sorority. She closed the box
and put it back on the shelf, running to the kitchen to retrieve a
bottle of water from the fridge. The top popped off and she dropped
the two pills inside and grabbed a straw from the counter. The
pills needed time to dissolve, so she sat the bottle down and let
them soak. After ten minutes, she returned to the living room and
handed the water to Saundra.

Standing at
five-foot-three inches, Saundra paced back and forth, nibbling on
one of her thumbs. Her hair hung in a ponytail to the middle of her
back. She looked up, noticing Jasmine was in need of a first aid
kit. She grabbed the water and took a quick sip from the
straw.

“Is she here?” Saundra
asked.

“Yes. Why don’t you have a
seat? She will be in here in a minute.”

Saundra sat down and
continued to sip from the straw. Jasmine checked Teresa’s door to
make sure it was locked. She went into her bedroom and into the
master bathroom. Picking up a washcloth, she ran the water, letting
the temperature warm up before rinsing it out.

What was she going to do
with Saundra? She had to get in touch with Maurice. An alibi was
necessary. After washing her face, she took off the Looney Tunes
nighty and put on some jeans and a black t-shirt. She kneeled down
and opened a toolbox, picking up a roll of duct tape and a thin
black piece of rope. She walked back in the living room and stood
over Saundra, now unconscious on the floor from the pills. A small
puddle lay beside the bottle.

Jasmine kneeled down and
taped Saundra’s legs together. In another world she worked
diligently to get the job done and, didn’t see how she could keep
her alive after knocking her out.

What was she thinking?
This was not her; something changed. She killed her roommate and
drugged Teresa’s friend, and for what? Because she let her emotions
get the best of her over a man she had never been formerly
introduced to? There was only one way out of this.

Once she finished tying
Saundra up, she dragged her to the closet and stuffed her in. She
then went into Teresa’s room. The air in the room was stale and
Jasmine almost couldn’t stand being in there.

“Focus
,
” she told herself.

She retrieved Teresa’s
cell phone and flipped it open. She looked through her list of
contacts and stopped when she got to “Mr. M”. Jasmine used her own
cell to make the call. She shut Teresa’s phone and closed her
bedroom door. The wall held her steady as she leaned against it,
waiting for Maurice to answer on the other end. When he didn’t
answer, she hung up and called him back.

“Hello?” he
answered.

“Can I speak with Maurice,
please?”

“Speaking,” he
said.

“This is Jasmine. We have
a problem.”

“How do WE have a problem?
I don’t even know you. What was that all about back at the house?
And where is Teresa?”

“Teresa is dead and you
need to help me get rid of her body or we are both going to have
big problems.”

The silence on the other
end of the phone was such that she thought he hung up on her. She
looked at the phone, still seeing the timing tick. She spoke
again.

“Hello?” she
said.

“You killed her?” he
responded, shocked.

“We killed her by
mistake,” Jasmine replied.

“When I left, she was
still alive. So it sounds like YOU have a problem, not me.” He hung
up and her bottom lip trembled as she redialed his number. He
didn’t answer, so she left a message:

“Since you want to play
games, I’ll give you thirty minutes to get back over here and help
me clean up our mess. It would be a shame if the police got a
sample of what you left inside of her and made you their number one
suspect.”

She hung up and decided to
clean the house. She wanted to make sure everything was spotless,
but not too spotless. Her nerves were getting the best of her.
Jasmine was a military brat. Her father spent most of her childhood
moving their family around from base to base. She picked up a few
of his weapons before leaving to go to college. He didn’t seem to
mind, and she was glad she had them. But right now, she needed to
get them out of dodge. If an investigation just happened to take
place, she didn’t want them to find guns in the house.

She worked around the
living room and moved to the kitchen. Her room stayed clean, so she
bypassed it and stepped back into Teresa’s room. She cleaned up her
bed, floor, and wiped blood spatter off the wall and nightstand.
She looked at the clock on the wall. Thirty minutes had gone by, so
she started to call Maurice back when there was a knock at the
door. Jasmine’s nerves shot to the roof. She walked quietly to the
door and looked through the peephole to see Maurice standing on the
other side. She unlocked the door and opened it. He stepped in and
looked at her. He was upset that she dragged him into this. She
could tell, but didn’t care.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s do
this.”

Part 2

Saundra’s eyes fluttered open. Darkness
surrounded her. At most, she could tell she was moving, but she
wasn’t using her own power to do it. Trying to remember what
happened wasn’t so easy, but it was imperative that she’d try.

Who turned out the lights?
she
wondered.

Saundra tried to move. There were objects
all around her, but she couldn’t make any of them out. Then she
noticed her hands and feet were tied. She tried to open her mouth
to speak, but it was taped closed. Nervousness hit her hard. Why
was she tied up
?
While she fought to remember, panic swept
over her.

“
Mmm . . . mmmm . . . ”
she moaned, trying desperately to make noise.

Whatever was carrying her came to a sudden
stop, making her roll to the side.
Could I be in a car?
she
wondered. Her eyes adjusted to the dark. In front of her appeared
to be someone else, but she couldn’t make out who. The car started
up again and the person driving was in a hurry. Saundra rolled
again to the opposite side from the speed. Whoever was behind her
was now on her back and would’ve been breathing down her neck;
except, they felt cold.

“
Oh, my God! Help me,” she
mumbled, chills running through her body. The tape on her mouth was
wet and sticky now. Thinking she may be able to free her mouth if
she licked it, she stuck her tongue out and went at it. Using her
hips and elbows, she forced herself to turn over. It took her about
five full minutes to complete the process. When she finally got a
look at the person’s face, a muffled screech left her
gut.

“
Mmmmmmm! Mmmmmmmm!” she
screeched.

Tears fell from her eyes as she shook and
hyperventilated. Her jaws blew out and in as she inhaled and
exhaled. Her best friend, Teresa, stared coldly back at her.
Saundra was face-to-face with her now. Teresa’s forehead leaned
into Saundra’s as the car continue to speed. Even though they were
friends, Saundra scrambled frantically to get away from the corpse.
It was too much to see her friend like this. That’s when everything
came clambering back.