I Never Said I Loved You

Two figures wearing all black stood in the dark hallway. The only light came from the flashlights they held. The taller one, Nick, was on the verge of slapping his shorter counterpart, Jennifer.

“It was your fucking idea to do this! I’m not backing down now. We’ve come way too far, anyways!” He growled at her. His large hand was wrapped tightly around her smaller one.

“Please, Nick. You’re hurting me! I’ll do it! I’ll do it! Just let me go.” Jennifer whimpered, squirming in Nick’s painful grasp.

With one last squeeze, Nick let her go. He pushed Jennifer in the direction of the door that read “Dr. Edmonds” and handed her the lock pick they had used to get into St. Edwards. After they’re run in with the security guard, Jennifer had wanted to abandon their plan to retrieve the stash Jennifer had dropped earlier. Nick was making a fortune from selling the pure crack cocaine. Should anyone find the drugs, it would be reported to security. There would be a campus-wide search. No one would be let in; no one would be let out. And most definitely, Nick would be caught.
“Go on, then. Open the door. And you had better hope to God that that stuff is in there…” he trailed off to leave more to her imagination. Naturally, he wasn’t a violent guy, but he’d be damned if he got into trouble because of Jennifer’s carelessness. Jennifer took the lock pick in her shaky hands and began to work on the last barrier between them and the drugs. It took a while since she was so nervous. Nick was getting impatient.

“Hurry up.” He said through gritted teeth. To keep from strangling her, he balled his hands into fists. Once this was over, things would no longer be the same between them. Finally, Jennifer heard the click as the lock gave way and the door opened. Smiling, Jennifer stood and turned to Nick. He pushed past her and went inside, ignoring her. Jennifer watched him search the room from the doorway. He hadn’t turned on the light yet.

“Where’s the light switch?” she asked.

“Hell if I know. Why would I turn on the light? Do you want the guards to come again? They already suspect us. If they see the lights on in here, they’ll come to investigate. And then we’ll be caught.” Nick paused to turn and give her a disgusted look. “Try using your head for once.”

Jennifer bit her bottom lip hard to keep from saying anything back. She stopped when she felt the coppery taste of blood in her mouth and the sting of tears in her eyes. She moved into the room and began her own search of the office. Jennifer closed the door and checked behind it. A scream almost escaped but she clamped her hand over her mouth. Leaned up against the wall was a cardboard cutout of Willie Nelson. For a split second she had thought it was Mr. Edmonds himself. He did resemble Willie Nelson; everyone said so.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked, noticing her discomfort.

“Nothing, I just scared myself is all.” Jennifer replied, shaking her head. Nick snorted and continued his search. Jennifer followed suit and moved past the cutout to the black wooden bookcase right next to it. It held an array of items from fuzzy teddy bears wearing leather jackets to scholarly books. It was dusty and looked like it hadn’t been touched in a while. Jennifer thought it was safe to say that the drugs weren’t stashed in any books. She kept going but there was nothing else against the wall save for the numerous pictures of Mr. Edmonds and his family. Jennifer raised her flashlight and got a good look of all the walls in the office. They were covered with maps, interesting slogans, pictures, and newspaper clippings.

“Wow.” Jennifer murmured, catching sight of the clipping Mr. Edmonds had of Nixon on the door. Suddenly, instead of Nixon, Jennifer was seeing stars. She stumbled forward, hit the door, and crumbled to the floor. The back of her head hurt tremendously and she could feel warm liquid ooze from the wound she had. Nick stood over her, clutching the flashlight in his hand so hard his knuckles had turned white. Blood dripped from the edge of it and the light now had a red tint.

“Stupid! You’re so stupid!” Nick hissed, hitting her again. “You shine the light near the window and they’ll know we’re in here!” Resisting the urge to hit her once more, Nick pulled Jennifer to her feet roughly and took away her flashlight.

“You hit me…”

“I’ll do it again if you don’t shut up. You just sit down and let me look for it. You’re useless beyond sex and lock picking.” With that, Nick pushed her onto the chair behind Mr. Edmonds’ cluttered desk and moved away from her. Jennifer’s vision swam and the room danced around her. She groaned in pain and held her head. The blood had stopped flowing but it was wet and sticky in her hair. Angrily, she searched Mr. Edmonds’ desk for some type of weapon to get Nick back later. She found nothing but various graded papers, red inked newspapers, and memos.
“I hate you.” She murmured, hanging her head. The pain was beginning to subside. She looked up to see Nick in front of her opening a closet door that was previously hidden behind pictures and newspaper clippings.

“Nothing in here but a horrible t-shirt collection. What the hell, does he even where these?” he murmured, shutting the closet door. Holding his light down low, he moved over to where Jennifer was before and checked the floor around the bookcase. He then moved behind Jennifer to where the window was and checked the floor there too. There wasn’t much near that wall besides a grey filing cabinet tucked in the corner and a heap of The Writers Chronicle issues under the window. Nick tried to open the filing cabinet but it was locked.

“Need my services again?” she asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Just get up and do it.”

“No.”

In an instant, Nick had a fistful of Jennifer’s hair and had yanked hard, intensifying her headache. He pulled her out of the black swivel chair and threw her against the wall. Jennifer struck out blindly, swinging like a mad woman. Nick dropped the flashlights and tried to grab a hold of Jennifer’s arms. She pushed him back and made a run for the door. Nick grabbed her before she could and pushed her towards the filing cabinet on the opposite side of the room.

“What the hell is the matter with you? This is your fault! It’s your mess so clean it up!” he shouted, smacking her hard. Jennifer stumbled over to the computer desk adjacent to Mr. Edmonds’ desk and tried to grab a pen. Nick grabbed her again and began to shake her. Jennifer grabbed Nick’s black jacket to steady herself before head butting him. The blow dazed them both but Jennifer recovered first. It was too dark to see without the flashlights. They were both on the floor near the window. Jennifer pushed Nick out of the way and ran to the window. She picked up the flashlights and turned to run but Nick grabbed her again. Jennifer swung at him with one of the flashlights and struck his jaw hard.

Nick stumbled and tripped over the Oakland A’s Athletics garbage can next to the desk and fell backward. Jennifer let out a small scream when she heard the thud of his head hitting the corner of the desk. Nick dragged papers with him as he went down. They fluttered to the floor and lay scattered on and around his limp body. His eyes were open but Jennifer could tell Nick was dead.

“Oh no. Oh God, no.” Jennifer whispered, covering her mouth with both hands. She backed up quickly, trying to get from the body, and tripped over the pile of The Writer’s Chronicle. There was a loud crash as Jennifer fell back and out of the window overlooking the parking lot. She tried to grab a hold of something, of anything, but there were none. With a final thump, her body hit the ground, severing her spinal cord and killing her instantly. The plastic skull and the old radio that had been sitting on the windowsill were now on the pavement along with her body, as broken as she was.