So Thick You Could Cut It With a Knife

54 8 23
                                    

The laughter stopped. All eyes were on Billy as he clenched his first, lunging toward his girlfriend, Eileen.

He grabbed her by the shirt and cocked his arm. 

"You don't get to talk to me that way!" he shouted into her face. Eileen remained defiant.

"Whoa, Billy, calm down." The tension had sobered up Marty a little, he didn't want to witness yet another scuffle between the two. "She was kidding."

Eileen said nothing. She wasn't kidding. She was sick of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Billy.

Billy's alcohol-fueled rage turned its attention to Marty. Billy glared at him, taking his focus off Eileen for a moment. She wriggled free of his grasp and bolted inside the small camp.

"What's it to you?" Billy growled at Marty. Marty only shook his head in disapproval. He was not interested in having a confrontation. Dave, on the other hand, was still rather drunk. The whole thing played out like a comical scene from a movie to him. 

"I can't believe you're letting them get away with this," Dave chuckled. Stoking the flames of the campfire as he stoked the fire of Billy's anger at the same time.

The alcohol whispered to Billy, telling him his reputation as a tough guy was on the line. He was going to have to put up or shut up.

"Watch this," he said, smirking as he picked up a fillet knife from the picnic table. He started off toward the camp. There was no plan rolling around in his head, only a vague sense that he would threaten Eileen with it.

"Go get her!" Dave goaded, clearly still unable to understand the situation. Marty sat frozen. The situation was playing out quicker than he was sobering up.

There was shouting, a clatter as things inside the camp fell to the floor, then Eileen burst through the door. Her top was cut apart from the knife, as Billy's rage had turned into misguided desire once he got inside. He ran out after her.

"Get back here!" he shouted, still holding the knife. He caught up to her next to the picnic table. The pair wrestled for a moment, then Billy let go. Eileen now held the knife.

"What are you gonna do with that?" Billy laughed. Her answer was swift. 

Only the handle of the fillet knife stuck out from his stomach, the rest was inside him. Eileen stood in shock as Billy's friends rushed to his aid.

She watched as Marty drove her car away from the camp, remaining alone at the campfire as the others took her boyfriend to a hospital. A car returned in about half an hour, but it was not Marty and Dave, it was the police. Billy had bled to death, and she was under arrest.

Though she might have had a strong case, she chose to accept a plea and would serve three years for her crime.

It didn't matter to her, she was finally free.

In 500... (or less)Where stories live. Discover now