# 2:

"Did you kill her?"

´´What? I couldn´t believe it.

A month had passed since the incident, my mother became hysterical, she forced me to miss classes when she found out what had happened to my roommate, she tried to make me drop out that year and even the dean offered me a leave of absence, so I could reincorporate the following term, but I refused.

There was very little left to finish and I had no intention of giving up.

All over campus there was a huge commotion, everybody commented on what had happened, everyone, students and professors alike came up to me to ask if I had any idea who the murderer was and truth is that I was more lost than a cow in a movie theater.

Anyway, my mother had installed three padlocks inside and three padlocks outside on my bedroom door, it may seem a bit exaggerated but, "the strangler" was still loose and many speculated that I could be the next victim.

So I nearly spat out my soda in shock when Mark walked up to my desk in the library one afternoon.

"Come on, confess. I know it was you.´´ he insisted.

I looked at him perplexed, almost being catatonic with astonishment.

"Are you crazy?" I protested. ´´ Where did you get the idea that I killed Amalia?´´

"From your incessant complaints." He smiled from ear to ear, his chocolate eyes shone full of amusement. ´´She was your partner during duty , I heard you protested to Professor Alicia when we rotated through pediatrics.´´

I bit my lip, nervously.

That at least was true. Amalia disappeared during shifts and the specialists didn't seem to mind in the slightest. That situation had started during our first internship rotation , in Gynecology and Obstetrics. I remember that from writing the evolution of all women who had a cesarean section one night I ended up with stiff neck. I spent a week with a sore and stiff neck after that.

Then we went to surgery, Amalia was conspicuous by her absence in half of our shifts, but since I was there and wrote all the clinical histories, teachers didn't care.

When we went to Pediatrics and I couldn't take it anymore.

Amalia was absent the first night and I complained directly to the teacher in specialist in charge , my patience had simply reached its limit, the clinical histories to write in pediatrics were monstrously long, Isimply couldn't handle all of that by myself.

When Amalia found out about it , she confronted me directly.

´´I can't believe you told me with teacher Alicia. ´´ she protested.

´´And I can't believe that you are so cynical as to come and reproach me for that.´ I answered dryly.

I left her openmouthed and looking at me with a face of utter offense.

"After how I've been with you, is this how you repay me?" she yelled, visibly dismayed.

I looked at her, my black eyes filled with all the rudeness, ridicule and secrets that I had endured and knew.

"Yes, Amalia. Precisely because of how you have been to me is why I did it.

After that bitter scene, she didn´t speak to me again except for essential things and that suited me wonderfully, also she attended the following shifts punctually, doing an impeccable job, until I found her dead.

"I didn't kill her ." I looked at Mark directly into his mocking and curious eyes.

´´ Oh, come on. You hated her, she was a bitch to you. You simply suffered a fit of fury and kk .´´ he said, making a sign with his hand as if his throat were being cut.

"You can be really childish sometimes, you know that?" I huffed. ´´ And no, I didn't kill her . When I found her she had been dead for five hours. I had been here, in hospital since eight in the morning, I was in the pediatric ward , many parents of the patients are witnesses. Also, according to the expert's report, the murderer is a man. ´´ I answered with a small tone of superiority.

Mark narrowed his eyes, he seemed to want to go through at me, I held his gaze until he got tired and looked away.

"If anyone should be suspected, it's you. Don't you think?´´

He jerked back in surprise.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, visibly scared.

´´ You were one of Amalia´s many fuck friends. Don't deny it.´´ I hastened to say, seeing that he opened his mouth to protest. ´´you can fool anyone else but not me. You were always calling on her on her cell phone, you texted each other, you went into our bedroom many times when you both thought I was asleep...

I saw him turn pale, blinking rapidly, and a fine layer of sweat began to form on his forehead.

´´The day before she died I saw you arguing in the parking lot. There seemed you said a few horrors to eachother, yet I didn't tell the police about that.´´

He frowned as he continued to look at me. I gave him my most forced smile, tightening my lips.

"You're a self-centered cocksucker, Mark, but… are you also a murderer?"

I drank my soda slowly while I looked at him from the bottom up, I can't deny it I enjoyed seeing the powerful Mark Montalvo tremble inside his expensive Converse sneakers.

---

"What do you think if we study together?" Yunior offered. "The state test is very close and I think you'll need some help."

I gave him with a scowl while sticking out my tongue at him.

´´Not at all . I'm going to be fine, I've already made summaries of the most important issues of Gynecology and Pediatrics. As Surgery rotation progresses I´ll make sure to summarize what is most relevant and I will do the same with Internal Medicine.

´´ Ok, ok, I see that my help is unwanted as well as unnecessary. ´´ he laughed. Yunior was one of the few whom I considered my friends among my classmates. He was a jovial, smiling and pleasant boy. His hair was brown and her eyes were black, when he smiled a pair of very cute dimples appeared on his cheeks.

To tell the truth I had a crush on him.