There rested the remnants of his dreams, smashed on the wood floor of his parents living room while they were in California for the holiday. Ring Ring Ring the house phone over in the kitchen startles through the silent house. He picks up the phone and lifts it slowly to his ear, smothering it with his girlfriend’s blood that remained on his hand. On the other end of the phone he hears ocean waves and kids entranced by the excitement, while yelling about the ocean ruining their sandcastles.

 “Hello?” he hears from the phone.

“David? Hello?” they repeat. 

All he can do is stare at the wall. 

“Are you there? How’s the house doing? Throwing no parties I hope” they ask him. 

“I killed her” is what David wanted to say, to confess. But he didn’t, he snapped out of it, and he told his parents that the house was great and he and Jessie will have it cleaner than it was left to them for when his parents got home on Monday. 

“Perfect! Thank you so much David, this means the world to us” his mom responded with as she hung up the phone. David wanted to call back, because the ocean and kids playing on the California beach in the background calmed him enough for his whole body to stop trembling. He he slowly turned back around after putting the phone down and peered into the living room from the kitchen, and ironically, he couldn’t stand the sight of her laying on the floor lifeless, covered in the blood that he caused. David sat there, pondering what to do next. Hide the body? Turn himself in? Stage the death? None of David's options sat right with him, Jessie was his dream girl. 

He wrapped Jessie’s body in towels and carried her to the trunk of the car, where she barely fit, and he shoved her lifeless nothing into the trunk forcefully. He drove to the spot where they had their first date. The top of the cliff they had the most perfect, movie-like first date. The open nothingness of the sky, and the land below. It felt right that she be there, with him. Her body, her soul, her mind blend right in now, with the nothingness. The cliff picnic date was so perfect, because the calm, silence, and beauty of it contrasted Jessie’s amazing, bubbly personality. Her energy, her strength, standing there in front of the setting sun was unparalleled. She was everything he needed to see, and needed to have. David worked on wooing Jessie the first time they met, and he failed. After that, he finally convinced her to go on a date with him, and she fell hard for him. She would do anything to spend another date with David. He was more selfish than Jessie though. He did this for himself, so he could feel something again, and its not guilt that is brought upon him in these situations, it is satisfaction. He needed to feel good, he thrives knowing he has a huge secret to keep. “She's just another girl” “you don’t need her” “there’ll be a thousand more for him”, he told himself to rationalize it. He just keeps telling himself that, that there will be more. After all, it worked last time and brought him Jessie. One can only hope the second girlfriend you kill will play out similar to the first.