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Pineapples.

      Reese loved pineapples. He liked everything about them. The color of the shell, the leaves whose sharp ridges would cut deeply when passed quickly over someone's wrist, even the smell excited Reese. Every morning when Reese rose from bed and slipped on his Hello Kitty bath robe and pink fuzzy slippers he would pour himself a bowl of cereal in the kitchen, pull a large, wet butcher knife from the wooden holder, and chop himself a slice of pineapple. Not the end slice, which had been sitting exposed in the refrigerator all night long since his last slice the previous morning. That one was a tad bit dry. He cut that slice off and fed it to his pet Gila monster.
      This morning Reese stood and ate his breakfast. He usually didn’t do this, because he had three wonderfully comfortable blue chairs and one wonderfully comfortable teal chair set around his kitchen table. The teal chair was once blue like the rest of the chairs around the small table, it was a part of the original set. But bleach and a lot of scrubbing had turned the chair a light teal color. If someone looked hard enough, they could probably still see the outline of the stain that only law enforcement would be excited about. Reese did not sit in this chair, but he couldn’t bring himself to throw it out either. Instead, he kept two coats over it at all times.
      Jill, who worked at the grocery store, used to fuck Reese. Back in high school when they used to have feelings and convictions, they were neither best friends nor even acquaintances. Jill would watch the back of Reese's well proportioned head in history class and sigh inside. She wondered if Johnny DeMarko would ever quit boning his girlfriend (it turns out that they didn't actually have sex, who knew?) and finally introduce her to the quiet kid with the nice haircut, slim fit jeans, who smelled amazing and always remembered to turn in his homework. And who-rumor had it-liked her.
      Truth is, Reese didn't even know Jill's name, but he would never admit that later when they started dating. Even after Jill's parents kicked him out of the house and forbade him to ever return, and Jill took him to the parking lot just outside the local water park and made love to him again just to get back at her parents. Even after Jill sobbingly begged for forgiveness two weeks later for sleeping with Johnny DeMarko while she was on ecstasy. Even after he wrestled with taking her back prom night, and instead got drunk and high and wrapped his car around a tree and killed his ‘best friend’ Johnny. Even after, by a scheduling coincidence at the hospital, he wound up delivered her baby ten and a half years later (he later found out it was her third baby with her second husband). After all that, Reese never told her that he hadn't known her name until she whispered it in between sloppy, inexperienced kisses.
      Reese looked out his big sliding glass window at the city below. He picked up his fresh slice of pineapple and took a bite. He closed his eyes, chewing, savoring the flavor. There was nothing in the world quite like the wet, refreshing taste of a good slice of pineapple. Just like there was nothing in the world like the feeling of pushing nine millimeter bullets into the clip of a silenced handgun, grasping the rubberized grip, and sliding the magazine home.
      Because Reese was going to kill someone later today.