Folks Have Been Murdered for Less

Story Submitted by Jack:

When I was in my early twenties, I had a date with Suzanne. The plan was to pick her up at her house, drive to an overlook to watch the sunset, have dinner out, and play the rest of the evening by ear. She was a psychology student at a local college and seemed to have a good head on her shoulders.

Once I had picked her up, I drove off and turned the radio on, as was my usual habit when driving. A soft rock song played. Suzanne reached for the switch and turned it off. I asked, "Not your style?"

She shook her head. I asked her, "What would you like to listen to?"

She replied, "Guess."

I turned the radio back on and found a classic rock station. She switched it off and said, "Guess again."

I was tiring of the game, but tried once more with a top 40 station. She switched it off once more. "Try again."

I said, "Why don't you just switch on some music that you like? I'll listen to it regardless."

She said, "If you won't play with me anymore, then I'll make your life a living hell."

I laughed, not taking her seriously, switched on the radio, turned it back to the original station and said, "Seriously, you can switch it to whatever you want."

She sat back in the seat, said, "Okay," and then screamed at the top of her lungs. I jumped so high that I nearly dented the car roof. We were about a minute away from the overlook, but I pulled the car over there and then.

"What the fuck?" I yelled at her.

She said, "Don't use that tone with me. Now are you going to play nice or aren't you?"

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm going to ignore the fact that you just screamed your head off. Can we just go up to the overlook and enjoy the sunset?"

She asked, "Are you telling me what to do?"

I said, "I'm asking you nicely."

She screamed again, louder than before, if possible. I jumped out of the car, ran over to her side of the vehicle, opened her door and said, "Get out. You're walking home, psycho."

She shook her head and said, "I'm staying right here and if you lay a finger on me, I'll call the cops."

I took out my phone and said, "I have a better idea. I'll call the cops and tell them that a psycho mess is harassing me in my own car and that you will not vacate my property."

She folded her arms, ready to call my bluff. I called the cops, explained the situation, and they promised to send a car over.

She smirked and said, "You didn't really call them you spineless sack of shit." I smirked back and didn't say a word. 

A police car showed up about ten minutes later. She saw it coming, gave me a shocked look, and jumped out of the car, but she was too late. 

She approached the cop as he stepped out of his cruiser and he told her to back off. She said, in hysterics, something about how I tried to take advantage of her, but it was pretty clear from the start that he wasn't taking her word on things. He even yelled at her to calm down, which I took to be a good sign for me.

The kicker came when he asked her, "If he took advantage of you, then why did he call? And why did you stick around here with him for the time between his phone call and when I showed up? You'd better get your story straight."

She flashed me an angry look, but I knew that I was in the right. To sum up the rest of the story, he took my statement, told me that I could go, and I left her there with him. I doubt that she was arrested, although she probably had a cozy ride home in the back of his cruiser. And all because she couldn't tell me what type of music she wanted to listen to.