I killed Becky

A girl kills her best friend because of the friend's bad habit of gum smacking

Becky and I were besties for life, but then I bashed her head in. But we would most definitely still be friends today if I hadn’t done that. A lot of things would be different now if I hadn’t killed her. For one, I would no doubt still be able to wear the cardigan that Becky had seeped her blood onto. I forgive her for it though, there was so much of it and she couldn’t really help it from spraying out the way it did. And besides, I totally ruined her favorite beret, the white one she was was wearing when I pushed that deep dent into her forehead. But if you’d asked me, I wouldn’t be caught dead in that hat.

This story is about Becky. Becky Morgantire, being almost as dead as bell-bottom jeans, is dead as my beloved and dearly missed best friend.

I killed Becky because someone needed to stop her from smacking her gum the way she did. She was always chewing gum, which was okay; I can understand that she needed to depress her appetite because she had started to put on some tummy fat and was having to squeeze into her size double-zero, but she didn’t have to smack it the way she did. The noise that came from her gnawing and tearing at the gum was the absolute worst thing. It was like a concert of madness composed by Becky and her orchestra of pearly white teeth.

Becky and I had miraculously gotten every class together, we squealed like pampered pigs when we compared class schedules. Each class with her became the same; A constant wet smacking. No one cared, maybe no one even noticed, but it’s like when I did, it never ended. I couldn’t even focus enough to cheat. Becky was sabotaging my life.

           It went on for a while until one day the bell rang and I stepped out of class having learned only a single thing all day. If I wanted my grades to improve, if I wanted peace of mind, I would have to kill Becky.

When I got home it was the thought that kept me up that night. I was going to murder Becky. It wasn’t a matter of if or how, but of when. The gum smacking had become a part of her and I couldn’t just ask her to shut up. The smacking was who she was and all I needed was for it to stop.       

I’d wake up from what would have been a nightmare a week before; me beating Becky into deathly silence was now the sweetest and most rejuvenating sleep I had ever gotten. At school in the classes her smacking was all I could focus on, it was really the only thing I wanted to focus on. Watching her chew that gum so sloppily and obnoxiously assured me that I really did need to end her.

There she was smacking her gum at Jake Friedman. Jake Friedman! Twirling her curled hair around her fingertip and giggling between smacks at whatever he said. Giggle, smack, giggle, chomp, giggle, smack and Jake was eating it up like he couldn't even hear it. I’ll be the first to admit that her hair was super gorgeous that day.

I was devastated, a few minutes ticked off the clock, but the class wouldn't end and neither would the cow chewing her cud in the back corner. Jake hadn't talked to me or even texted me all class, not even when the teacher was lecturing. He was caught in a trance, hypnotized by her swashing bubblegum like staring into a washing machine in an empty laundromat. Someone needed to save him. I grabbed a book, it was very heavy from being loaded up with s**t. I thought about how heavy Becky’s head must be and how a mess of s**t would come out when I bashed it.

          I glided towards their seats with a finger trailing across the desks behind me and the smooth book, five or so pounds of words on paper wrapped in a hardcover, held firmly in the other hand. Confident yet feather light steps were taking me to them quickly. I thought for a minute that my shoes were squeaking, but unsurprisingly that was Becky's smacking. I was there abruptly, a smile on my face and a mouthful of questions. "Jake what does ‘abruptly’ mean? What are we even supposed to be doing in this book?" I asked with my arms crossed to prop my breasts into Jakes face. He answered all the questions. With a smile on my face under the spotlight of Jake's attention I said, "Oh, Becky did you want to spend the night tonight?"

            At my house that night we watched a marathon of scary movies like we usually did. Really though, all the horror I needed was sitting on the couch with me. In the movie a group of college kids are out drinking and partying until the masked buzz-killer comes and starts chain sawing each one of them into bits, starting of course with the prettiest girl. Not such a bad idea. A party. Jake is throwing a party next Friday. I made sure of this with Becky, her face lit up at the mention of Jake, “smack smack Yeah! It’ll be killer! smack smack...”. In the movie the pretty blonde girl catches her ankle on a root stumbling and screaming until the killer rips her scene to black.

            When we spoke in my room later that night Becky seemed to be speaking to me in smacks, like some kind of gross Morse code. The actual words that left her mouth entered my ears as gibberish, but her smacks in perfect clarity, they were saying, “kill me Melissa, just kill me!” I knew how I could end her jabbering. My hand reached for the porcelain lamp on the nightstand. I would shut her up and finally get some peace.

          I flicked it off the light and told her goodnight, I could practice self control until next week. Her smacking continued, it lingered in the polluted darkness, I stuffed the pillow into my ears to drown it out. Don’t fall asleep with gum in your mouth Becky, I thought, you may choke, or worse, you could get it caught in your hair.

    The week leading to the party went slowly by. Sitting in the classes with her I noticed Becky’s smacking had gotten louder, full of force. It was like it sensed the coming end and decided to make the most of its time. The noise of her flapping jaws echoed and beat against my skull. Each of her smacks showed on my face as a cringe or a twitch of the eye. I couldn't wait for the party.    

              The Friday bell rang and the school left. Becky with me, we went to my house to get ready for the party. We stood in front of the mirror straightening our hair, the smell of crisp hair masked that god awful bubblegum. We painted our nails, hers pink and mine red. So cute. It would be a night to remember for everyone at the party except Becky Morgantire. We started our walk there at nine, Jake doesn’t live far from me.

            We walked underneath the moon, our heels clacking against the street. We passed by a dead orange grove in between two houses, a shortcut to Jake’s house. A little spooky, but Becky insisted we cut through. I tried telling her that cutting through the property would be trespassing and illegal, but she went in anyway with me a couple hesitant steps behind. She went in and I had no choice, but to follow her, we had to enter the party together.

            There was darkness, nothing around but dead trees. The crickets sang to me, “do it now, do it now, do it now.” Her smacking sang along with the chirping, “kill me kill me kill me.”  

    I told her that maybe we should just go back; it was kind of creepy in here not to mention illegal. Her smacking excused my concerns like I was child. It mocked my fears and me. The repulsive smacking made the dead trees moan with irritation and silenced the cricket’s beautiful strumming. They had a point, the crickets did. Any person who can’t follow a simple rule like no trespassing deserves to be killed anyway, it is criminal and so should her nasty habit of gum smacking. I kept at following her with these thoughts, ideas in my head when an incautious step introduced my foot to a rock. Becky had the same problem a couple feet up with a well-placed root popping up out of the ground. She screamed out before her body thrashed to the uneven ground underfoot.

    “You know what to do,” the wind swayed the thoughts of the trees so familiar with death into my ears. I grabbed for the invisible rock in the darkness pooled around my feet. Two hands lifted it over my head and two feet started me towards poor Becky on the ground. Her final smacks grew louder with each adrenaline-spiking inch. I stood over her I could see nothing, only hear. Moaning and smacking in the darkness, that was it. I was going to bludgeon the smacking, the wet flapping and not my beautiful best friend Becky Morgantire. The eager rock struck her in the head like a bolt of fate. I heard the gum kiss the ground and then silence.

      But then there was moaning and the wet sound of her blood as it leaked from her head onto her sputtering lips. The rock gliding through the country air, rising and falling onto her face until I had it. Peace in the form of silence.

    I continued walking. I knew Jake’s house was close, speaker music slapped the night. I cleaned myself. The party had just started.

Reviews

[Pratik Mishra]

Great work man! This was one story I was interested in!

[Rosemary]

HAHAHA Amazing! The atmosphere you created was marvelous :D

[Sharon L.H. Kelly]

Congratulations on your contest win! You deserve it, this piece is masterfully written! Expert imagery and flow.

[Vian]

"Giggle, smack, giggle, chomp, giggle, smack and Jake was eating it up like he couldn't even hear it." Ha ha ha, your a genius! I loved this. The imagery and audio were perfect. I absolutely adore that this was written in a very female way. Y'know the shallow girls you read about, the perfectly 'normal' ones. You pulled it off beautifully. You made me truly imagine that any old girl with a gum smacking best friend would do the same. I was laughing all the while as my mind told me what a morbid story this was. You made my day.

Thank you for being a writer.

Vian

[love, lorey]

This is awesome! I must admit there have been a few gum smacking gigglers in my day I have considered ending... but unlike our heroine, I didn't spiral into paranoid insanity :) yay for them.

And for you, very well written! Loved every weird bit of it.

[sonnie ibadah]

lmfao! this is so crazy! just the thought of killing somebody 'coz of gum smacking is hilarious...i really enjoyed it, nice work!

[Marie]

A little long, but interesting all the way through.

[Avery]

This is insanely funny. You've just earned a sub

[ZackOfBridge]

Woo-hoo! Thank you Sheri