The Crime

“Did you hear the news?” a mid-twenty something blonde man said, sitting next to a brunette woman roughly the same age.

“How could I not?”

“Did it surprise you?

“Of course it did.”

He held a paper in one hand and gently put it down on the table.  The brunette woman winced, but otherwise showed little emotion.

“How are you so calm over this? You dated him for Christ sake.”

“You were his best friend for I don’t know how many years.”

“Well, people change I guess.”

“Apparently.  The Jeff I knew would never–“ She trailed off.  The reality of the situation appeared to hit her all at once.

“It’s okay, Beth.  It’s nothing you did.”

“I know that, Todd!  I’ve told myself that since the moment I heard.”

“But you don’t believe it.”

“No.  There has to be something I could have said that might have made the slightest difference.”

“There wasn’t.”

“But all those families…”

“BETH!  There wasn’t!  Let it go.”

“That’s easy for you to say.  You didn’t sleep with him.”

“Do you really think that gives you some magical insight into the workings of his later deranged mind?”

“Something was there then; it had to have been.  Maybe if I had just made him cum a little better…”

“I’m sure he cummed spectacularly.  At least that’s what he told me the next day.”

“You dog!” Beth shrieked, throwing a pillow.

“Hey, women tell each other just as much.”

“Not that way.”

“What way is that?”

“You know,” Beth said, impersonating a male voice, “I totally banged this girl last night.  She squealed like a piggy.”

“He didn’t say it like that.”

“How did he say it?  No, never mind, I don’t want to know.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.  No.  Yes.  Fine, just tell me.”

“He said he slept with the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on and he was truly happy for the first time in his life.”

“No way.”

“Yes way.”

“What did you say back?”

“I believe my exact words were ‘Dude… weak!’”

“That does sound like your teenage self and come to think of it your current self.”

“It was really corny.”

“And romantic.”

“But mostly… corny.”

“I don’t understand then, why he broke it off and left.  You’ve got to know more than what you’ve told me.”

“The last thing he said was he needed to get out of town to work some stuff out.  I didn’t see him after that; no one did.  He vanished into thin air.”

“He didn’t call… or text?”

“Like I said… nothing.”

“Did they say what happened to him?  I couldn’t finish reading the article.”

“It wasn’t pretty, Beth.”

“What do you mean?”

“You knew Jeff.  He was always the determined sort.  No one was going to take him alive if he didn’t want them to.”

“You mean?”

“I’m really sorry.  I had a hard time accepting too but it’s done.  The Jeff we knew died long before that night.”

“I can’t believe that.”

“Why not?  No friend of ours could possibly do such heinous things.  He changed.  Became another person.”

“I got a phone call from him,” Beth interjected, “a year or so after he left.  He hung up after a few seconds but I knew it was him.”

“Honestly, Beth that could have been any pervert!”

“It was him.  I knew.”

“And you didn’t report this to the police?  You know what he did!  What he was doing even then!”

“I agonized over it, believe me.”

“Obviously not enough.  You never mentioned this.”

“I didn’t think you’d understand.  I was kind of right in a way.”

“I’m not the unreasonable one!  You aided and abetted a criminal!”

“Really?  I had no solid proof it was him.  He didn’t say a word.  Do you think the police would have done anything but laugh?”

“No… I suppose not.”

“They’d probably think it was a long time coming.  Little girl can’t get over her heartthrob who ran away and became…”

Todd put his arm around her shoulder.  “Do you remember the police questioning us?”

“Yeah, they tried to get something, but they were from the same town.  They knew everything we did.”

“It’s a shame things didn’t work out differently.  He deserved what he got, I won’t deny, but still…”

“Are you sure?  They shot him in cold blood.  He didn’t have a chance to defend himself.”

“Beth, don’t start feeling sorry for him.  It’ll only make things harder.”

“I suppose so.  I guess I’m still holding onto who he was before all this; that smart, bright guy I fell in love with.”

“It’s hard letting go.  He was my best friend; always there for me no matter what.”

Todd picked himself up from the couch with a sigh, grabbing the newspaper.  He kissed Beth on the head and walked slowly to the door before pausing. 

“What is it, Todd?”

“I still can’t believe he was gay.”