A Hat Out of Your Hair, Madam? My First Weekend Prompt Original Short Story

Here is my Weekend #freewrite short story hosted by @mariannewest
The three prompts are:

"I like hats." That’s what Donald said the day before he killed Sally.’
She found him in the Terminal Bar and Grill. He was sober for a change.
The time he caught a fly ball

This was my first time ever trying to do a SHORT timed story. I learned a lot (That I need to remember to turn my sound on so that I hear the timer go off for the first part amongst other things like how damn SHORT five minutes is!!! I only went back to edit the names where I forgot that the guy's name was Donald and not Dave. Oops. I'd apparently set it in my mind that Dave was a creepier name than Donald?)

Anyway, I promised myself that I would write SOMETHING each day until I feel more inspired and to just WRITE because it makes me happy. So, here is my challenge of the day... and my apologies for reading the second prompt slightly wrong!

Anyway, on with the show!

"I like hats." That's what Donald said the day before he killed Sally. He added, “Maybe I could make one out of your hair,” then laughed, as though it were a joke.

Still, he made her feel awkward and uncomfortable with the comment alone, not to mention the way he was staring at her hair like he literally wanted to chew it off her head. He may have even been drooling just a bit.

Of course Sally wrote it off as social awkwardness. He wouldn’t really make a hat out of her hair. It was a ridiculous thought. She managed to hang on through the rest of the blind date, but had the thought several times over the course of the long coffee hour that she was really glad she’d listened to her friends advice and started all of her online dates and blind dates as an afternoon coffee break. It was so much easier to cut a coffee afternoon short than it was to stop an evening dinner date in the middle.

Nonetheless, she was so relieved when she was able to leave that she nearly cried when she got in the Uber to head home. The feelings must have shown on her face, because the driver even asked if she was okay. She of course said she was fine, because she didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable. Sally had been raised to be polite, after all. Weren’t all nice girls raised that way?

She almost ignored his texts the next day, but then started to question her feelings from the afternoon. Surely she was just being nervous. He texted apologizing for his awkward comments. He said that he wasn’t usually so completely at a loss for words, but its just that she had left him feeling somewhat stunned. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met. He asked her for a second chance and promised that he wouldn’t bother her ever again if she’d just meet him one more time. Anywhere she wanted… where she felt comfortable.

She found him in the Terminal Bar and Grill. He was sober for a change.
Not that she’d know, but he had told her that he struggled with alcohol once upon a time. Obviously, he hadn’t let on that the ‘long time ago’ he referred to was apparently just last week.

Ugh. She should have followed her instincts on their first date. He made excuses, said he was afraid he was going to be all awkward around her again and swore that he’d only had a couple of drinks before she arrived to help calm himself. Besides, was it really his fault that she was late? The bartender had felt sorry for him, thinking that he’d been stood up and had given him a free drink or two. What was he supposed to do? Turn down a free drink? That would be rude.

She clutched her purse in her hands and searched her mind for any excuse to leave without making him angry. For some reason, he seemed the type to go into a rage. He’d already made enough snippy comments since she’d gotten here. She was at war with herself already… but that politeness was so deeply ingrained, she couldn’t find a way to extricate herself from the situation without leaving all of her good manners at the door.

She finally decided that she was going to call a friend. She excused herself to go to the restroom and Donald
made some sort of snide remark about women a little too loudly and then laughed as if it were a joke.

Sally almost ran to the bathroom and called her best friend, asking her to call with an emergency. “I don’t care what you say, just give me a reason to LEAVE this guy NOW!” And since Sally’s friend had no problem being rude, she was all for it. She even offered to come to the bar and get her out of there…

Sally’s friend called just as Donald was telling her about the time he caught a fly ball. He was so drunk by this point that he was nearly slobbering all over her while he spewed his ‘amazing’ story. Sally kept checking her phone until Donald got pissed off and knocked it out of her hand.

She jumped in shock and he grabbed her wrist, “I’m sick of you ignoring me. If you didn’t want another date, you should have just said so.”

Sally could see his bloodshot eyes and realized that things were much worse than she’d thought. She shoudl ahve had her friend come to the bar and get her. How was she even going to get out of this situation now?

Donald grabbed her arm as he lurched off of the bar stool, dragging her along with him. “Come on, let’s put you in a cab, I wouldn’t want to waste anymore of your precious time.” He headed for the door with his hand locked onto her wrist. She didn’t want to make a scene, so she followed him to the door. Besides, how much danger could she really get in with him just taking her outside to put her in a cab?

She went through the opened door and stumbled over the top step. Donald laughed, “Well, I guess I’m not the only one who’s had too much to drink.” He was slurring his words and smelled like a brewery. How long had he been at the bar already?

Suddenly, he started sobbing, “I’m such a loser. I should have never agreed to come to a bar. I knew you were too good for me.” He turned and wrapped her in a bear hug, his tears wet on her shoulder.

She felt awkward, but patted his shoulder, “It’s okay. Some things just aren’t meant to be.” He was crying in earnest now, seemingly hopeless and distraught. “Listen, how about I help you to your car? You can sleep it off in the backseat. Let’s not worry about today. Forget it ever happened.”

“You’ll give me another chance?”

“Sure,” she said. Anything to get him away from her. She walked with him, holding him up as he guided her to his car. He gestured to a nice looking sleek black car at the back of the lot. It was dark, but what harm was going to come to her? He could barely stand on his own. She watched him fumble with his keys and took them from him, beeping to unlock the doors so she could help him in and get out of there.

As she opened the door to his car, he suddenly shifted. He stood up tall and straight, he words sharp and clear, “How dumb do you think I am, you stupid bitch? You were just counting the seconds until you could get away. I know how your brain works, but I’m not that stupid.”

She felt a sharp pain in her side and looked down to see a knife sticking out between her ribs. A coldness was seeping through her as she realized she’d been a fool. He leaned close and whispered in her ear, “I wasn’t kidding about making a hat out of your hair, you know…” before her world went black.