Keep Driving
On the drive home from school, Julie's mind kept replaying the exchange she had with Mary after second period. Erika had told her the bitch actually had the nerve to call Julie a slut, just because she was showing a little bit of skin around her waist. Never a soft touch, Julie had called Mary on her bullshit in the hallway, and things had escalated.

"Hey, puta, you think I'm a fucking slut?" Julie had demanded angrily.

"So what if I do?" Mary had answered, trying to be brave.

"Say it to my fucking face then, bitch, if you got shit to say," Julie had shouted, feeling her rage boiling over, "because I'm not no fucking slut, bitch, I keep it in my fucking pants, unlike you, pendeja!"

Mary hadn't been prepared for Julie's fiery temper, and for each step Julie took forward she took a step back. Julie could see Mary second guessing herself, and the fact that her foe was intimidated only added fuel to her fury. Once she had backed Mary up against the lockers, the bitch had reached out and slapped her, an action Julie hadn't anticipated, although in hindsight, it should have been expected. What did dogs do when you backed them into a corner? They bit, that's what.

Julie had responded by swinging wildly, but she missed her mark. Next thing she knew, both girls were pulling hair and scratching until Mr. Wallace broke it up and escorted them to the to the principal's office. Julie had spent the remainder of the day in Sack, (a classroom with a jail cell type mentality, where no talking, personal interaction, or breaks were allowed) and she had a notice to take home to her parents, which she was expected to have signed and returned the next day. To top it all off, she spent an hour and a half of basketball practice running sprints until she vomited; Coach Marquez’s punishment for starting a fight in school.

Now her clear, creamy skin was flushed from the workout, and on her left cheek the vague imprint of a hand still lingered, and there were scratches on her arms and her back to boot. It had not been a very good day to say the least, and her pride was hurt by the fact that she hadn't gotten better licks in during the scuffle. Hell, it might have all been worth it if she had just managed one solid blow on that little skank.

Her train of thought was interrupted by something in the road ahead. She gently applied the brakes, gradually decreasing her speed until her old Pontiac was creeping along at twenty miles an hour. An idling Honda with emergency lights flashing blocked the right lane, a kid she recognized from school blocked the passing lane, waving his arms over his head, and what appeared to be a body lay still in the middle of the road.

After coming to a complete stop, Julie rolled down her window and poked her head out, and the boy who had flagged her down hurried over to her door.

“Julie, you gotta help him, please, come on!” he yelled frantically. Julie felt embarrassed that she didn’t know this kid’s name when he clearly knew hers, but she set that aside for the time being and stepped out of her vehicle.

“What happened to him?” she asked, hoping to avoid any social awkwardness that might arise by asking the boy’s name.

“I dunno, he just… was like that.”

Julie wrinkled her brow as she walked over to where the body lie, trying to make sense of the situation. Whoever was on the pavement, it appeared to be a boy around the same age as the one asking her for help, although he was lying face down, making it difficult to be certain.

“Hey, are you okay?” Julie asked, squatting on her haunches and reaching a hand out to the limp body. What happened next caught her completely off guard. Without a word the boy rolled over and fired a revolver into Julie’s stomach.

Julie fell back onto her perfectly rounded buttocks, her lush lips parted in an O of shock, and she pressed a hand to her belly. She was quick to recover and scramble to her feet, but the kid on the blacktop plugged her again, in the left hip this time. Julie turned away from him, facing the kid that had summoned her into this trap, and saw he now brandished a gun as well.

Being completely unfamiliar with firearms, Julie had no idea what type of pistol the boy that waved her down wielded, but this information didn’t interest her as he fired the weapon, sending a round deep into her guts.

"Uhhh," Julie grunted, covering the wounds in her midriff with both hands. Hot blood spurted against her palms, spilling through her fingers and over her knuckles, but Julie paid it no mind. I have to get back in my car, she told herself. Intent on escape, she moved stubbornly forward, ignoring the sting in the back of her left thigh as the boy on the ground plugged her in the hamstring. She shrugged off a third shot in the guts from Waving Boy and took a few more steps towards her car.

Waving Boy stepped aside as Julie walked past him, and she didn't even glance in his direction. She caught a round in the left butt cheek, and her left leg stiffened as she’d now been shot in the left thigh, hip, and buttock, but she persisted. A third boy emerged from behind Julie's Pontiac, this one also carrying a sidearm, and he opened fire on her.

Oh God, this is bad, Julie thought. A chunk of hot lead bit into her right shoulder, another punched into her chest below her right collar bone, and a third struck her in the right breast, near her nipple. Behind her, Bait Boy had risen from the street and shot her in the lower back. The bullet passed cleanly through her midriff, leaving an exit wound to the left of her navel. She was still a good twenty feet from her car, and the third boy and his gun now stood between her and any possible hope of survival.

Determined to live, Julie walked straight towards the newcomer, who she recognized as the quarterback of the JV football team. Eddie, she thought his name was. A nine millimeter slug punched into her back, below her right shoulder blade, Waving Boy's handiwork, and Eddie put rounds through her left bicep and below her left breast.

"Aim low, Eddie, remember, we don't wanna hit her heart," Waving Boy bawled.

"I didn't hit her heart, relax. Isn't that right, Julie?" Eddie responded, then shot Julie high in the stomach, a couple inches south of her sternum.

Julie grunted, her mouth filled with blood and she spat it out on the pavement, then she answered earnestly, "I think that’s right." On the heels of that she thought, At least if they don’t shoot me in the heart I might survive. Aloud, she said, “This one might have been close,” and she pointed to the hole below the swell of her bosom.

Eddie laughed and shot her twice more, once in the right thigh and once below the waistline of her white jeans. With both legs wounded, Julie finally relented. She found she could no longer support her flawlessly-sculpted one hundred thirty five pounds of weight, and she sunk to her knees. She looked down at herself; her white, sleeveless, button-down top, which stopped just shy of her navel and was the cause of so much controversy earlier that day, was riddled with holes and stained bright red in most places. Am I dying? she wondered. As she examined herself and weighed her chances of survival, two more rounds slammed into her back, putting an arch her spine and causing her shirt to raise up on her perky breasts and reveal several more inches of pale, milky white skin streaked with blood. Then Eddie popped her a couple more times in her bare belly.

The strength in Julie's thighs gave out and her butt came down on her heels, then she slowly slumped backwards until her shoulder blades were resting on the pavement. She lifted her head just high enough to look at her body one more time, then she lay back and murmured, "What a day."

"Holy shit, we really got her," Waving Boy said as he walked over to where she lay.

“Holy shit, you really got me,” Julie agreed.

"You're dying, Julie. How does it feel? What's going through your head right now?" Eddie asked with genuine curiosity.

Am I dying? "Why?" Julie stammered. “Why… did you do this to me?”

"Well, we just wanted to kill somebody," Eddie shrugged. "Mark here suggested you, because he knew you take this road home after basketball practice, and we set it up." Mark was Waving Boy's name. Julie remembered now. They had third period together. This road was Willard Drive, a seldom-traveled, two lane strip of black top, which ran through nine miles of barren desert and connected Calcutta with East Town. Julie couldn't believe that she had been chosen to die based on such random criteria. "It must suck, knowing that it's all about to come to an end," Eddie added, prodding her.

"Yeah. It…" Julie gurgled on her blood. "sucks. Why would you want to… kill somebody?"

"We wanted to watch you die," Mark told her. "You know to see what it's like. But we didn't want it to happen too quickly, you know. That's why I told Eddie not to shoot you in the heart."

To see what it's like, Julie thought in amazement. "Well I guess you're…" Julie choked and spat more blood, "watching me die." Her voice got very small as she said that. Am I really dying?

"I didn't shoot you in the heart, did I?" Eddie asked her.

"Don't think so."

"Good. She's fuckin' hot, isn't she?" Eddie told his friends.

"Fuck yeah, she is," Bait Boy agreed.

"Does it hurt?" Mark asked her.

"Fuck yes."

"What's it like? Like what are you thinking about?"

Julie opened her mouth to answer, not even sure what she would say, but Eddie shot her two more times in the midriff. "Awkkk," was all she managed.

Eddie laughed. "Holy shit, you see those holes open up in her fucking stomach?"

"Dude, don't be a dick, I'm trying to talk to her," Mark protested.

"You can still talk to her, it's just fucking crazy." Eddie shot her again, right next to her navel. "You see that shit? Fuck, look at all that blood come out of her."

"You still with us, Julie?" Mark asked.

"St... stop shooting... mu-me," Julie croaked.

Bait Boy shot her now, in the crotch this time. They all laughed at that, and then Eddie crowed, "You fucking blew away her muff box!"

"Are you virgin, Julie?" Mark asked her.

"I heard she's a fucking slut," Eddie said, grinning like a prick.

"I am a virgin," Julie answered, somewhat indignantly. It was the second time that day she was compelled to defend her reputation.

"Well you just had your cherry popped by a .38," Mark told her, and all three boys had a good laugh about that. When they were done chuckling, Mark returned to his interrogation. "For real though, tell us how you're feeling, what you're thinking. That's why we're doing this, you know?"

“I’m scared. I duh… don’t wanna die.”

“You don’t think you’ll go to heaven?”

Julie rolled her eyes. If Mark had asked her that fifteen minutes ago she’d probably have said “Fuck yeah, I’m going to heaven.” Now she realized she didn’t actually believe in heaven. Instead she simply said, “No… I don’t.”

“You think you’re going to hell?”

“No.”

“So oblivion then. An eternity of nothing. Forever and ever.” Mark whistled and looked at his buddies. “Heavy shit, huh?”

I can’t die. Surely I can still be saved, right? she thought. There was so much she never got to do. So much she wanted to do. It wasn’t fair. "Fuck, I'm so cold,” she said. “I think I… juh just pissed myself." Julie's eyes grew wider and her extremities grew colder.

The boys standing over her laughed heartily at that. “She fucking pissed her pants,” Eddie said, elbowing Mark.

“I’ve heard people piss themselves when they’re dying. Wasn’t sure if it was true. Is it because you’re scared or because your muscles are shutting down, do you think?” Mark asked her.

Julie lifted her head to look at herself again. Jesus, there’s so much blood. I’ve been shot twenty-four times and my blood is fucking everywhere. This is really happening. "Shit. I'm dying. Guhh. I'm dying." Julie made a slurping noise as she tried in vain to regain her composure. "Ohmugawd I'm really dying." Her shrill voice was spiked with panic.

“Yeah, no shit. I think we established that. I’m asking you a question.”

Mark and his fucking questions. “I don’t know. I think maybe… I sh… shit my pants too.”

Her killers cackled gleefully at this confession.

“Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Oh fuck I’m so scared.”

“So you shit yourself ‘cause you’re scared?”

“I don’t know. Oh fuck. Ohmugawdohmuhgawdohmu… I’m dying. I’m gonna die.”

“Dude, she’s fucking freaking out,” Waving Boy said.

“Yeah she is,” Eddie agreed. “Julie, snap out of it.”

Eddie shot her twice above her left breast. “Pull yourself together, bitch.”

Julie stopped babbling and blinked a few times, batting her pretty eyelashes, then she tried to answer Mark so they wouldn’t shoot her again. “Okay. Yes. I’m so fucking… scared. I think I shit myself because I’m fuh… fucking… scared. I’m fucking terrified.”

“I bet you are,” Mark said. “You probably woke up this morning thinking something like this could never happen to you, huh? I mean did you ever think you might die like this?”

“Oooooh fuck. Fuck, I don’tfuckingbelieve… I can’t… Ohmugah… No, I never fucking thought…”

“Bro, she’s really losing it,” Bait Boy told his pals.

“Yup,” Eddie concured, chuckling.

“I’m fucking DYING, assholes!” Julie spat at them, blood flying from her lips.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Eddie put three more holes in her abdomen. “Watch your mouth, bitch.”

“Oof,” Julie grunted and rolled her stunning blue eyes. “Oh fucking FUCK, that hurts.”

“I think I see some of her guts coming out,” Eddie told his buddies. “Isn’t that her intestines right there?”

Julie tried to look at herself again to see if her guts really were coming out of her tummy, but the world was spinning. Nauseous and light headed, she gave up and just let her head drop back to the pavement.

“Yeah, no shit, I think you’re right. God damn,” Bait Boy agreed with Eddie.

“What do you think you’re gonna miss the most?” Mark asked her.

How do you miss anything when you’re dead? That’s a feeling, and you have to be alive to feel. Fuck, I can’t believe I’m dying. This is all wrong. “Living,” Julie answered. “Laughing. Feeling.”

Eddie shot her in the side of her left thigh, then in her left knee, then in the left side of her lower belly, near her hip.

“How many fucking bullets does that thing have?” Mark asked him.

“I reloaded,” Eddie said with a shrug.

“You’re a bloodthirsty son of a bitch.”

“It’s just wild, the damage the bullets do to her flesh. I see some of her muscle ripped out of her jeans there, see? We’re never gonna get to see shit like this again.”

“Ooooooouuuuuurrrrrhhhhoooooo,” Julie was making a low purring noise, twisting and reaching for her leg and her belly.

“Julie. Julie?” Mark said, but Julie didn’t reply. She continued making her strange noise.

This is it. This is really it. I’m gonna die. What the fuck is that weird noise? Oh, it’s me. I’m dying. I’m gonna die.

“I think you broke her,” Mark told Eddie.

“Julie!” Eddie shouted. BLAP! He plugged her in the lower right side of her ribs.

“Ooooffuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. What?” Julie said in a frantic voice, then she added, “I’m dying. I’m fuh… fucking dying.”

“What about dying a virgin?” Mark asked her. “Are you sorry you never had sex?”

“I don’t… I… I just wanna live. I wanna live. I wanna live.”

“You know you’re so hot, you could have had sex with like any guy you wanted, right? Are you sorry you didn’t? Like do you regret it now that you’re dying?”

“I regret suh… so much. I shouldn’t have bothered studying fuh… for that math test.” Julie almost laughed. “I guess I won’t… need my mom to sign my behavior memo… at least. Oh, my mom. I’ll never… see my mom again. I shuh… should’ve… stayed home. I wanna go home.”

“But you don’t care that you never fucked anyone?”

“I wanna go home. Iwannagohome Iwannagohome Iwannago…” Julie repeated in a tiny voice that trailed off.

BLAM! Eddie blasted her in the inner right thigh. “Answer the fucking question ya dumb cunt,” he barked.

“Awfuck, yes. Jesus. Yes. I wish… I wish I’d had sex.”

“Who would you have fucked?” Mark asked her.

“Larry. Larry Velasquez. And maybe Paul Phuh… Paul Phipps.” She would have totally fucked Paul Phipps. She wondered what he would think if he saw her now, dying in the road like this. She wondered what her mom would think. This was going to devastate her. "Mommee." It was little more than a whimper. "Mom... mommeee." She called softly for her mother, to whom she had not referred as 'mommy' in more than ten years.

“You would have fucked your mom? That’s a little weird,” Mark noted.

“No,” Julie muttered, “I want my… mommy.”

“I fucked your mom,” Eddie said, then laughed and shot her again in the right side of her chest.

Julie’s thoughts devolved into those of a panicked animal after that, and she lied on the ground, gasping for breath and spitting up blood, spattering her velvety cheeks with crimson, her spectacularly beautiful blue eyes bulging in their sockets, her hands clutching at empty air, as her life blood spilled out of her body. This went on for close to two minutes before she finally lay forever still, and three boys who killed her watched it unfold, completely mesmerized.

"What did we do?"

"We killed her and watched her die," Eddie said.