Julia teaches Jason Who's Boss
“Hey babe, can you get the pizza out the fridge?” my boyfriend, Jason asks over his shoulder. I roll my eyes and get up anyway, not wanting to make him upset.
This is one of the many usual interactions I have with him when he comes over to my house every Saturday night just to play video games. According to him, his “parents are stressing him out”, and he just needs “time to vibe”. Whatever it means, I’m getting sick of it.
I angrily get the pizza from the fridge and take it out of the box. It's Hawaiian. Of course, it is. He knows I hate Hawaiian--bad experience from 9th grade--and yet he continues to buy it anyway. Whatever.
I put the pizza into the oven at 357 degrees Fahrenheit, and sit back down on the couch. I go to open up Instagram when Jason nudged me off the couch.
“Babe, I don’t want you in my area. This game of Fortnite is super important to me; We’re almost at victory royale,” he whines.
I look at him like he’s joking.
“Are you serious? Are you freaking serious right now?” I ask, appalled.
He quickly moves his eyes from the screen.
“Yes! This is important to me, ok?” His eyes go back to the screen.
I shake my head and stomp off to the kitchen, furious. Who does this guy think he is? This is my house, for crying out loud! Does he think that he can come in here like he owns the place, and boss me around? Hell no. Rashly, I decide I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.
I stomp back to the living room and stand in front of the TV, arms crossed. He looks up, surprised.
“Julia!” he whines. “Why are you standing in front of my game, I’m about to win!”
I clench my fists. “Because you, Jason Hill, are being quite the jerk. I’m so tired of you just walking into my house like you own the place! You have your own Xbox, go play Fortnite on there! Why do you have to boss me around all the time? I should be bossing you around more, since all you do is lie around and play video games! I’m working my ass off at school, and I don’t want to come home to see that you’ve eaten all my food again!”
Jason looks shocked. Then he glared, and threw the controller down.
“I’m the one who's doing everything wrong here, aren’t I? It’s always my fault. You see, Julia, you’re always so quick to point out what's wrong with me, but continue to ignore what’s wrong with you! You know what? You’re fat! You’re ugly, not even a 5 out of 10, and I honestly have no idea why I decided to date you in the first place. At least back then you were somewhat skinny, but now you’re just a beached whale! And you talk about how hard you’re working at school all the time, but really? A marine biologist? No one’s ever going to accept you near any animal if you stay looking like that.”
My mouth dropped, shocked. My fists unclench as I watch Jason get up from the sofa, knock me out of the way with his shoulder, and walk to the kitchen.
“This pizza tastes like crap, by the way”, he says, throwing it out.
I’m stuck in the same place. Jason’s always been a bit rude but that...that was something else. Tears start to fall down my cheeks as I go and pick up the ridiculous amount of trash he left on the couch.
“Hey babe, you know I didn’t mean all of that,” Jason murmers, hugging me from behind.
I immediately feel sick to my stomach and elbow him gently. “I’m cleaning up,” I whisper, voice cracking.
He takes a step back. “Don’t give me that crap!” he yells, grabbing me by the arm and whipping me around towards him.
“I’m being nice to you. Isn’t that what you’re always asking for?!” he yells again, shaking me.
I start crying again, hard this time. I can’t even form words, but somewhere, deep inside of me, I’ve been broken. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but this relationship has been clawing away at my self-esteem and mental health for too long. This is a normal occurrence--Jason yelling at me and then immediately going to comfort me. It's his way of keeping me on a leash.
But you know what? Screw this.
It's my turn to get revenge.
By now, Jason has gone back to the kitchen and is warming up ramen. I slowly make my way over to the utensil drawer and pull out a chef’s knife. Jason’s back is still turned. Good.
I creep up to behind him, knife clenched in my hand. I’m shaking.
It’s as if I completely blank out when I stab him.
“Jesus Christ, Julia! What the hell?” Jason screams. He has a massive gash in his arm, and it’s bleeding profusely. I’m in shock; the tears still haven’t dried on my face.
Jason looks at me like I’ve gone insane--maybe I have because I feel no sense of remorse, or even guilt. I feel oddly elevated.
The knife is still in my hand. I start screaming and attacking him quickly, leaving an absurd amount of cuts and slices on his body until he grabs my wrist and wrenches the knife out of it.
“What is going on with you? I never should’ve dated you, you’re crazy!” he pushes me on to the kitchen floor and runs to the couch to get his phone.
At this point, I'm heaving my lungs out, but I’m not done yet. I sneak behind the couch as he dials 911 frantically, and jump on him before he can hit call. We immediately go crashing into the TV, and some of the pieces of plastic rip at my skin. Thankfully, the adrenaline rush keeps it from hurting too bad. Jason, on the other hand, is in extreme pain.
He struggles to push me off him and run away, but I hold down his wrists. It seems like he’s given up struggling, so I release the tension on my grip a bit just to be thrown off to the floor.
Jason stands over me, covered in blood and breathing heavily. I attempt to get my knife back, but he grabs me by the neck and throws me on the couch with such force that it breaks. I scream on-contact, and for a bit, I can’t feel my body.
“Y’know, whenever you’re rude to me, I always want to beat you up. I guess I get the chance now, huh?” he says, and punches me in the face hard.
I realize that he’s probably going to kill me, so when he isn’t looking I grab a piece of the broken couch leg and stab it into his leg.
“Christ!” he screams, grasping his leg, hopping around like a frog. I run to the kitchen and find another knife, and then stab him. By now, Jason is on the floor, probably dead. At first, I want to leave, but then I realize that if they find his body, the murder will be blamed on me.
All of a sudden, the reality of the situation comes flying back at me. I killed someone. I killed Jason. Well, he deserved it, but what about his family? Despite Jason’s unnecessary hate towards them, they were pretty nice people. Very white, but nice nonetheless. I pace around for a moment and then come up with my decision.
“Hello, this is 911. What’s your emergency?”
“I killed my boyfriend I think.”
“You think? Is he breathing?”
“No. He’s dead...please just arrest me so I don’t hurt anyone else.”
“Hello? Ma’am? Hello-”
The symbols in the story are the knife and the couch. For the knife, it represents the destruction of their relationship--murderous and dangerous. When Julia was first going to stab Jason, her hand was shaking--like the shakiness of their relationship. For the couch, first, they were both sitting on the couch. Then, Jason pushed her off--pushed her into the edge. The couch breaking represents the shattering of their relationship.
