My Last Good Pair of Pantyhose

Chapter One

I awoke to the sound of running water, aching wrists and ankles, and the smell of vomit. All signs that the night before hadn’t gone too well. Opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was empty liquor bottles strewn across burgundy and forest green hound’s tooth carpeting. Whatever my adventure had been, it ended with me in a cheap motel room. Sitting up and stretching, the events of the night slowly began to clear the cloud that had settled in my head. Alyssa Mooney had met me at El Camino’s on Douglas road. She was my high school bff, partner in crime, and roommate. We threw back some margaritas and shots of tequila to start the night.

I slowly grabbed my purse and shoes which I had somehow turned into a makeshift pillow. My head was swimming. My mouth felt and tasted like I had been chewing tobacco all night. I pulled the Newport Kings from my purse and lit one, my last one. I had just bought the pack hours earlier, or at least I thought I had. Checked my cell, it was 7:00am. So, yeah, I’d just bought the pack after we left the bar to meet her weed man in the Weiler Homes, a seedy housing project in the city. The nicotine helped my pounding head ache. Fully awake and on my feet I scanned the room for Alyssa.

There were people passed out here and there; random guy, random chick, Fred, biker guy, super nice drunk chick, but no Alyssa. I took the last drag of my last square long and deep, it was at that moment that I remembered and paid attention to the running water. I couldn’t help but walk to the front door and peek out the window. My car was across the lot near the manager’s office and I didn’t see her car at all. I put the butt out in the ashtray and began to go through the rest of the night.We left the projects and dropped her car off at her mom’s place, then picked up her boyfriend James, from the Last Chance Bar. We were all friends and had gone to high school together. He was a little ‘off’, but all together a nice guy. Who would occasionally make passes at me when he was drunk, but then again who didn’t?

I laughed to myself as I again paid attention to the sound of that running water. Ok, I had to be to work in two and a half hours. I was tired and ready to get home. I began walking toward the bathroom. Maybe she had wanted to clean herself up. Alyssa probably was the one in there taking a w***e’s bath in the sink. As I came into the doorway I kept my eyes on the ground and said in a chipper cackle, “Clean yet b***h?”

It happened within a split second. I saw the blood smear on beige tile and looked up to see James washing his hands in the sink. Even though I was standing directly behind him to where he should’ve seen me in the mirror, he didn’t. It was because his head was down. The words he was muttering didn’t make any sense. I just wanted to back away. Back away and get the hell outta there, but like I said, all of this happened in a split second. He was covered in blood and I gasped. Not a scream or even a low shriek, but the hush of a deep breath. And faster than I thought to be humanly possible he grabbed the gun with his right hand from the side of the sink and had me pinned against the towel rack to the left of the bathroom door.

There were blood splatters across the mirror, on the walls, the shower curtain, it was everywhere. Inside I was screaming, but the gun he had, helped me keep my opinions to myself. His body was pressed hard against mine. I could smell the blood that was in his hair and that made tie die patterns on his clothes. His left hand had a tight grip on my neck, his left forearm rested securely between my breasts. Had it been under different circumstances I would’ve been aroused. He came in real close and smelled my hair. Deep, long, inhales. Turning my head to the side he smelled my neck in the same manner. While my head was turned I could see that there was something, probably someone, in the tub. I highly doubted that they were alive. Before I could let my mind investigate the scene any further, he put the gun at my temple and slowly traced the outline of the left side of my face. “You’re so beautiful.” He said, dragging out the beautiful as he brought the gun back to my temple. He used it like a finger and gently moved a long lock of my auburn hair from my face. “You’ve always been so beautiful.” I was terrified.

Loosening his grip on my neck and moving his hand up to my chin, he rubbed his thumb across my lips. His hands were the only thing not tainted with the blood. “You sleep with guy after guy, even n*****s.” The gun was once again at my temple. “You let everybody take a ride except ME!” He punched the wall so hard I thought someone would wake up, but not a sound came from the room. “What? Was I not good enough for Miry?” I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there. “ANSWER ME!” I cleared my throat. “No James. I just, like you, a lot and, and I didn’t want you, to look at me like that. You’re special, and I-” He put his thumb over my lips. Pressing them closed. “Prove it.” He said. I just looked at him for a moment. “PROVE IT!” He said again this time pressing his thumb down so hard that I could feel my bottom lip split.

He loosened his grip again. “Ok” I said in barely a whisper. My bottom lip began to bleed. He released his grip and sucked my bottom lip before kissing me passionately. I could taste nothing but my own blood and cigarettes. “Wait a minute.” I said. “What?” He grunted with his head buried in the crook of my neck. He then turned my head to the right again and began to lick and kiss my neck. A ripple of pleasure ran from my ear lobe down my spine. I broke free of the involuntary response. The shower curtain began to look as if it were glowing. Sunlight! There must be a window behind that curtain, I thought to myself.

He was kissing me again. This time I relaxed my body and kissed him back. I pressed my breasts and hips into the kiss. I had to make it seem real. Using my right hand I grabbed at the belt holding up his blood spattered jeans. “I want you James, but not like this.” He instantly filled with rage. “Then you don’t want me.” He said as he again took hold of my throat. “No.” I said, still keeping my cool. “You’re special to me. I wanna make love to you. Not f**k in a bathroom.” He calmed down. “Ok.” I kept going. “And I may be loose, but I’ve never been an exhibitionist.” I was lying. “So let me clean myself up a little and you kick those people out so that we can do this right.” I then kissed him, sliding my tongue deep into his mouth. He kissed me back for what seemed like forever. “Ok.” He said as he walked past me, gun in hand.

I shut and locked the door simultaneously and almost ripped the shower curtain off the hooks. There it was, small yet big enough for me, a window. And directly beneath it, in the tub, was Alyssa, staring blankly at me through the one eye that was still in her head.

“Get up and get the f**k out!” Came ringing from the room, along with the clash and rustle of liquor bottles as he made his way through the mess to wake up the sleeping party goers.

Alyssa was lying twisted and unnaturally contorted in the bathtub. Her left eye looked up at me blankly. The right eye socket was hollow and red, even her eyelid was gone. Her mouth hung wide open and drastically angled down and to the left, so much so that her tongue protruded grotesquely. I turned away, to keep myself from vomiting.

“Oh, my God!”

It was Fred’s deep raspy voice. They must have started to wake up.

Purse and shoes in hand I stepped into the blood filled bathtub and tried the window. It opened with ease. I was standing in a concoction of body fluids while wearing my last good pair of control top panty hose. So trying to get footing on the side of the tub was hard. I threw my purse and shoes out so I could get into a better position. It was so slippery that stepping directly from the bottom of the tub to the edge was impossible. I was going to have to step on her. “What the hell happened man?” It was Fred again. “Just get the hell outta here.” said James. But Fred kept trying to reason with him. Fred and James had been friends since elementary school. I kept working.

Using my left foot I scooted and rolled Alyssa’s body to the edge of the tub underneath the window until it was flush against the side. “I’m sorry.” I whispered, as I stepped on top of her right hip. Anchoring myself, with one foot on her corpse and the other on the edge of the bathtub, I pulled myself up until my stomach was on the window sill. Then I simply tumbled out of the small window. Upon hitting the ground I heard a gunshot. I made a mad dash to my car, as I shut the door I heard another gunshot. I sped off like a bat outta hell.

I kept shaking and screaming. When I got to the light at the corner of Miami and Fassett, I opened my car door and threw up. There’s nothing more irritating than crying while throwing up. The heaves kept coming, even as I gasped for air. I felt dizzy and confused. I could now smell the putrid death that had ruined my panty hose and it only made me throw up even harder. Cars were beginning to honk at me incessantly and all of the noise made my head start to spin. I shut the car door and slowly pulled into the parking lot of a bar that was adjacent to the intersection.

Grabbing my purse and dumping everything out onto the passenger’s seat, I found my cell phone. “9-1-1 what’s your emergency?” I told the operator everything that had happened and hung up. I sat in the parking lot for maybe ten more minutes. I then started my car and drove home. After showering I made myself a lunch and went to work. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about Alyssa or that I was used to escaping near death situations, I just didn’t have the energy to deal with any of it. Call me selfish or even heartless, but I just was too tired to spend any time on mourning. And with Alyssa gone, until I found a new roommate I’d have to carry the weight of the apartment on my own.