Who gets the girl.

The glaring midnight lights of the surrounding city had strained every last star from the night sky. Flashing signs and light shows filled the streets amongst the black sheet above that encompassed the city. The blinding scorn of the LED lamps that littered the streets penetrated through the cheap beige window shades where three decades worth of stains had been silhouetted. Tight and filled with the recognizable stench of degeneracy and regret, the two men stood in angry disposition from one another in the darkness of the unlit hotel room, the unnatural lights cutting their way through every sliver of uncovered window, beaming across the room and illuminating the dust filled air in a sickly pale glow.

“I’m telling you man, I’m pissed. I got every right to be pissed.”

“I know, listen, I know, but c’mon man, don’t act like you’ve never pulled something like this before on me.” 

The two men bickered, their voices restrained and purposefully collected, every breath pushed and pulled the smoke and dust that filled the room. 

“She was perfect though, wasn’t she?” One of the men said before taking a drag of his cigarette.

“Yeah ya’ damn right she was, and thats why I called dibs before your stupid ass went in.” The other man shouted back. “And if you pull that shit again Tom you know I’ll-”

“Yeah yeah keep your pants on Vin you’ve been spouting the same bullshit sense we got back to the hotel.” Tom interrupted, lying back on the stiff twin bed covered in a blanket of dust and debris. 

“Cause you always do this shit man!” Vinny spouted, standing high and lanky above Tom. The two barely keeping eye contact “Every girl I see, I give the look, she gives me the look, I give you the look, you piss off, I get the girl, you do your own shit.” Vinny rambled, his hands doing more to express his frustration than his hardly coherent speech pattern.

“Alright fine you damn pencil neck fucking-” Tom sat up as he mumbled, interrupted by his un-ashed cigarette falling into his half buttoned shirt.”Dammit you fucking, see what you fucking did with your inane bitching Vinny?” He started up again, pressing the ash out of his stained white shirt. 

“Every night is something about a damn girl, every night you got something to bitch to me about.” 

“If you did what you were supposed to you son of a bitch, instead of pullin’ shit like that every night, I wouldn’t need to get on your ass!” 

“Belt my fucking neck you twig legged bastard, if you had the balls I wouldn’t need to take every girl you go after, maybe you shouldn’t even fuckin’ be here if you can’t even approach one without them signin’ a damn consent form!” 

“Oh you fat shit head.” Vinny mumbled in frustration, stepping up to Tom, getting face to face with the short necked stumpy man. “You don’t got no right to be sittin’ there telling me I’m too much of a bitch, when you didn’t even follow through with the first girl.”

“Oh fuck you Vin!” 

“No, No listen here fat ass, you wouldn’t have had to steal my girl if your blind ass knew how to pick one. But guess what? She saw right fuckin’ threw your stub neck mug and bolted.”

“Well maybe I wouldn’t get stumped if I didn’t have to hear you screamin’ like a damn Mandrill Every night over the same shit!” Tom shouted, the hotel hallway echoing with their now-unrestrained bickering

“Oh bullshit, don’t blame me for your own-” Vinny stopped himself, perplexed as much as he was angry. “What the fuck is a Mandrill Tom?” 

“Oh for fucks… Its a type of monkey you idiot.” 

“You’re seriously gonna sit here and compare my genuine complaints about your actions to a fucking monkey?” Vinny said, taking a step forward. “A fucking monkey Tom?”

“I don’t give a damn about the mother fucking monkey Vinny! This is what I’m talking about. You always act like a little bitch around every thing I say or do!”

“That don’t fuckin’ mean you need to sit here and compare me to a fucking primate Tom, this is why you can’t keep a girl!” 

There was a moment of silence between the two, a long moment. The hotel room had darkened throughout the argument, as the artificial lights of the flashing signs were replaced by the dim blue glow of the wanning moon, the two men’s faces illuminated sparsely by the occasionally passing headlight peering through the windows to reveal their faces, red, and sweaty. Vinny turned around, wiping the sweat from his upper lip and combing his black greased hair back as Tom paced behind him.

“Listen, I don’t give a shit about any of this…” Tom began, turning to Vinny. “Not the monkey, not your screamin’ or whatever the hell, its all bullshit.” He continued, collected but with a voice that heaved in repressed frustration. 

“Sorry about the girl, Sorry about the… all the bullshit, I won’t take a girl you’re eyein’ like that again Vin, it ain’t right I know that.” 

“Well…” Vinny turned to him, an exasperated look in his eyes. “Sorry for talkin’ about that girl you got skipped on, I know that wasn’t your fault, girls are rough here man.” He said, finally. Sitting on the bed and lighting a cigarette.

“We don’t need to be arguing about that bullshit anyways.” Tom said, taking a cigarette as well and eagerly pulling a draw with trembling hands. “We got worse shit to worry about now.” 

“Oh yeah? Like what? You mean with the girl?”

“Yeah… Yeah the girl.” Tom took another draw, the orange glow of the stoked ashes illuminating his sweat drenched face. “Listen Vin, I… I don’t think she was breathing.”

Vinny stopped and starred at Tom, frozen, the cigarette almost falling from his lips.

“What… What exactly do you mean… She wasn’t breathing?” 

“I mean she wasn’t fucking breathing Vin!” Tom shot up, smoke and ash filling the void between them. ”Dead, shes fucking dead!”

“What the fuck are you talking about Tom? You mean right now, in there? Shes dead!?” 

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I got her in the car from the casino, I drugged her drink, she was out, text book, text book shit Vin.” Tom took another heavy draw.

“Then when I got here to the hotel to meet up with you after, she wasn’t breathing, she wasn’t fucking breathing Vin!”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Vinny stood up and started pacing across the room frantically. “This is why I… Fuck it doesn’t fucking matter! Wheres her body?” 

Tom motioned reluctantly towards the bathroom door, the pale yellow flickering outline that peered through the door cracks was all the reminder Tom needed. Vinny threw the door open to find the sprawled corpse of the young woman hanging upside down over the bathtub wall. The white foam from her mouth dripped down her blood shot eyes. Vinny stayed silent a moment, before slamming the door shut. 

“God dammit Tom! You have one fucking job, a job that I could’ve done if you hadn’t taken my fucking target!”

“Will you shut the hell up! Shes done, but we ain’t, we ain’t fucking done yet.” Tom said, standing up face to face with Vinny once again.

“Don’t you pull that shit with me, they’re gonna be here any fuckin’ minute now, expecting a live girl! She ain’t fuckin’ alive Tom! And neither will we if-” 

“If we don’t shut the fuck up, and get her the fuck outta here! So keep your fucking voice down.” Tom said as quietly as possible, face red with restrained anger. As the two men stood in quiet consideration, the sound of a calm knocking resounded from the thin wood panel door leading to the hallway. From the hotel window their shouting and bickering could be heard with three other voices. Arguments, mumbles, and pleas that eventually ran silent with the flash of two lights that shook the curtain, its stains now encompassed by the splatter of a dark substance across its thin veil.