“I think we should break up.”
The words still rung in her head as she smoothed the top of the earthy mound. Looking up, Cassie could see grey clouds forming overhead. She remembered the day Danny had made them leave a concert early because he was tired.
“A free concert! It's a free concert and you want to leave? We haven't done anything in weeks,” she had yelled at him over the sound of heavy drumming on the stage.
“I just want to go home, I'm tired.” He had woken up at 12. Sulking, she followed him home. And what had they done? Watched re-runs of his favourite show. Or rather she had watched him laugh at the painfully awful sitcom. They didn't speak for the rest of the day.
She leant the shovel against the side of the house and wiped her gloved hands on the boiler suit she was wearing. The mound looked good. Looked as if a hole had never been dug up there. She took out a packet of sunflower seeds from her pocket. “Don't touch my garden.” His voice shouted in her head. “That's mine, don't touch it. I'll get round to doing it when I get round to doing it.” Always barking orders at her. She liked how quiet it was without him. “God, I hate it when people do that. I hate it when people touch my stuff, it really annoys me.” Everything annoyed you, Danny.
She ripped the packet and bent down to plant them in the dirt. His new girlfriend was a gardener. He'd let her grow all sorts in his garden: sunflowers, an apple tree and they were starting a strawberry patch. He'd taken pictures of the two of them kissing and smiling next to each planted patch. He'd taken her out to a big garden centre, let her choose what she liked best. When Cassie asked him to go out he'd always say 'no'. “Why don't we go to a bar? We can have some cocktails, listen to some music.” He'd replied; “No, I don't like bars or cocktails.” A week later his friend had asked him the same thing and he'd gone straight away. “Let's go to the seaside. We'll get a train there, spend the day, buy some rock.” He'd replied; “I don't like the seaside. I don't like rock.” Two weeks later he'd gone down to Mablethorpe with a group of friends.
Patting the dirt, she threw the empty packet into her black bin and stood back to admire her work. “I think that looks quite nice.” She said aloud with pride. It felt good to do something on her own; to spend time on her own and not be punished for it. Danny had ignored her with a face of thunder when she'd come back home after a weekend with a new friend she'd made. “She's gay,” Cassie had remarked. “So we went to some normal pubs, danced to some music then she took me to a gay bar where some of her friends were and a girl bought me a drink!” Only she laughed at this. “I told her I was straight but she still bought me a drink. She thought I was gay as well!” Again, only she laughed. He turned the TV up. “Am I having a one-way conversation here or what?”
He'd replied sourly without even turning: “I can't be bothered to talk to you.”
She shook her head; “You never want to go anywhere with me so I go out with a friend and you're mad at me?”
He scowled; “I planned a whole weekend for you.”
She laughed dryly; “Yes, that's why you spent it out with your mates. Sure, Danny.”
The arguments didn't stop after they'd split up. In fact, they had seemed to get worse as time went on. “I can't believe you. Haven't you missed me at all? Did I mean nothing to you?” She had tried to be quiet as their friends had been laughing on the opposite side of the wall.
“Shut up Cassie, why can't you just get over it? You were never happy, you never wanted me and you weren't the same girl I fell in love with-”
“I can't believe you're going back to your ex. We hung out with her, were you looking at her then?” Cassie could feel tears creep back.
“We've always liked each other. It's none of your business. Just leave us alone.” Danny had snarled, slamming the door after him.
She let the rain fall on her. She put the shovel back in the shed and peeled off the gloves. She picked up a bulging plastic bag that had been in her conservatory and threw that into the black bin. There was something heavy wrapped in brown paper that she held in her hands for a moment and smiled. He hadn't seen it coming.
Luckily there had only been him in his house. He always slept late into the afternoon and his girlfriend hadn't spent the night. She had paused in his garden to admire the sunflowers. She was a good gardener, Cassie couldn't deny that, and they did bring some colour to the house. She'd crept through the back door, always left unlocked, and took note of the dirty dishes (she hasn't been here for a few days, Cassie had thought with a sneer) piled in the sink. Custard, mushy peas, noodles stuck to the bowls and a pan of whatever the hell that had been, left an odour that made her stomach turn. More dirty plates and a mug on the table in the living room. She was certain if she tried picking them up they would be stuck to the glass surface. The third step always creaked so she stepped over that and noticed a new odour floated at the top of the stairs. This was a smell of dirty underwear; sweat that had dried, clothes shoved under the great double bed that his lazy arse was spread across. She tried her best not to step on any of it but clothes were scattered all over. Another crusty bowl and a couple of squashed cans were by the bed, not helping the smell. As she leant over him, she held her breath to stop herself sucking in his sickly sweet unbrushed breath.
A pillow had been pushed to the side in the night and she snatched it up in her gloved hands. Lightly, gently, almost tenderly, she placed it on his face and brought the heavy object out of the pocket of her boiler suit. Aiming it to his temple she pulled and a sharp sound burst in the room for a short second. She calmly placed the weapon back in her pocket and folded the pillow up as the red seeped through its material. Lucky there was no one around as she shoved the body into the boot of her car. Lucky there was no one around when she pulled the body from the boot of her car and chucked it into the hole she'd spent two days digging up.
The sunflowers looked lovely when they grew.
No comments:
Post a Comment