Julia Scruffy: A Short Story

Julia

Scruffy and unshaven, Jet sat watching the television, flipping aimlessly through the channels. His name wasn’t actually Jet, but he’d used that name for so long he couldn’t change it back now. Besides, the optimistic, naïve person he used to be was gone. Jet was a hard man now—he’d made far too many mistakes and had paid for them. Now he sat patiently with his gun beside him. His latest mistake could appear at anytime.
The stair outside his apartment creaked. He cocked his gun, just in case. About ten seconds—and five hammer hits—later, his flimsy front door swung open, doorknob hanging. Jet jumped up and pointed his gun at the girl who had stepped calmly into his home. “Hello,” he said.
She looked him up and down coldly. “You won’t …show more content…

She sat down on a chair. “I don’t like the house. They make you take those mood drugs and do those workshops. It’s all stupid. Plus, they don’t like it when I mention my friends.”
That’s because your friends aren’t real, Jet thought to himself. Better to not say it out loud. “What do you want?” he asked instead.
She looked him straight in the eye. “I want to know if what you did to those other girls is true.”
Jet sighed, rubbing his temples. “God, I have better things to do then deal with this bullshit.”
“Like what?” she asked, unimpressed. “Thinking about all the lives you’ve ruined?”
“Technically it wasn’t my fault,” he paused, his conscience tugging at him a bit. “They did it to themselves.”
She stood up calmly, smiling. “My friends are onto you, you know.”
“I’m sure they are,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Are you going to leave or do I have to call the cops?”
“I know about Lisa,” she said. “And Brenda. And how you ruined them. And I was next, wasn’t …show more content…

“And-and Julia! Julia was the only one who was nice to me. And you made her do that awful thing; she would never have done it if you hadn’t made her!”
Jet sighed. Each name was like a stab in his stomach. Lisa. Brenda. And Julia. Julia had been the worst. The first day she had come to the house, she had smiled at him—a smile so big and so beautiful. But behind that smile, her mind was tormented, and messed up. They were all messed up, crazy. That’s why they were at the house. And getting involved with them had been such a bad idea, but he hadn’t cared back then. He sighed. “Julia was a mistake.”
The girl blinked. She hadn’t expected that. But after a brief pause, she kept talking, still backing down the hallway, away from Jet and his gun. “You should never have gone near them. They had problems they were trying to fix, but couldn’t, all because of you!”
It had been easy money, and even easier to blame the after-effects on their already existing madness. It was that simple. But this girl was making it less simple, and Jet’s head and heart started to ache. It was an awful feeling. And feelings were something he hadn’t had in a long time. “Why won’t you shut up and leave me alone?” he screamed,