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#6:

“It's me. Is it done?”

I went to the kitchen, sleepwalking and my hair tousled but I didn’t give a damn.

Matt was talking to someone through his cell phone, he was sitting in one of the tall chairs at the counter. His back was turned to me and he seemed tense.

"Did you fix the door?" he asked.”You changed it. Good. For a stronger one. And the lock? How much did everything cost? “He waited a few minutes and then added. “ That’s perfect, I'll tell her. Yes. I will transfer the money to you, thanks brother.

He hung up.

I was thirsty, that's why I'd awaken. According to my cell phone’s gossipy clock , I had only slept two hours. "Matt?"

He turned to see me. He looked at me, trying to hide a smile, I sure looked like a bear coming out of hibernation, I know. I smoothed my trail of hair, with my fingers, a little, and compressed my lips.

"I'm thirsty…" I whispered.

"Ah." He got up, going around the counter, opened the door of a refrigerator that lookedmore like wardrobe , and served me the water. I took a glass, sipped it and and headed back to sleep.


"Hey, wake up."

I growled. Resisting the voice that called me and the hand that shook my shoulder.

“Rosario, wake up.”

“What?! What the hell do you want?! “ I barked. Getting out from under the duvet and crinkling my eyes, the light bothered me.

Matt looked at me with a “relax, will you?” face and sat on the edge of the bed. I looked at him, but I didn't really see him. I was more asleep than awake. I think that for weeks I had not been able to sleep a whole night, being a prey to stress and fear.

"Aren't you hungry?" he asked. "It's five pm already."

I sighed deeply and shook my head. Matt ran his hands through his hair, making it stand up even more in that crazy style he liked so much.

“Look, your dorm door is already fixed.” he whispered.” I brought the rest of your things, it’s all in there."

He pointed to the closet. I breafly wondered if he had arranged my clothes. Putting it on hangers, folding it and accommodating it. Imagining Matt putting away my underwear made my stomach ache.

"I did it to prevent your belongings from being stolen." He explained. “ If you want, you can go back to the uni dormitories tomorrow.”

I raised my eyebrows. Oh! Montalvo hospitality is very few hours lived . I thought.

"Or…you can stay here." Matt murmured, trying to smile for a couple of seconds. "The person who did that to your room could try again."

"I know." I answered making a disgusted face.

Matt got up from the mattress, looking uncomfortable, like he didn't know what to do with his hands. As if he suddenly realized that we were alone in a room

"Sorry I woke you up. You don't have to decide right now. Look, I'll leave you a sandwich here in case you get hungry later.” He practically ran to the door and took off.

Montalvos, who understands them? I thought. Rolling my eyes.

I would have wanted to protest more effusively, but I hardly had the strength to speak. I shrugged and went back to sleep. I had no reason and much less interest in staying awake, so I settled happily back in Morpheus's arms.

“You've gone mad?! Why in the hell did you bring her here?!”

"What did you want me to do?! I couldn't leave her where she was. This isn’t a game Mark, and you know it.”

I had woken again, had cleaned myself up and was heading to the kitchen looking for something to eat (my tummy was dancing a rumba from the terrorist hunger I was suffering from) when I overheard the argument.

The twins were yelling at each other, like a pair of rabid dogs fighting over a bone, and it seemed I was the bone. I stopped in the hallway, putting my back against the wall, and sliding silently down until I was sitting on the floor. Surrounding my knees with my arms, and giving all my attention to the war between them.

"You should have taken her back to Remedios," Mark muttered angrily.

“ No.”

There was a tense silence for several minutes, I couldn't see them, but I imagined that they were holding each other's gaze.

"And what about our little secret, brother?" Mark whispered in a downright sinister tone.

My blood froze in my veins. Secret? What secret? I swear my throat went dry.

"She doesn't have to find out.” Matt replied, in a firm tone.

“You really believe so? You think she won't find out what we did?”

What?!

My whole body trembled, cold sweat ran down my spine.

"If you don't say anything, I won't either. You already said it, it's our secret. If we're careful, Rosario won't find out.

Mark grunted, not sharing his brother's convictions.”

“I'm sure she suspects, Matt. She made it very clear to me the other day. She knows about me and Amalia.”

"That doesn't prove anything."

"I don't want her here. She will start sniffing around, and she will see…”

“Keep your room locked.

"Take her away!"

“ No.”

"This is because you like her , isn’t it?" Mark asked mockingly. "You didn't bring her here because you fear she'll get hurt, but because you want to fuck her!

I frowned.

“ That's why you payed to fix her dorm door, right? And on top of that with the money our parents send us! Do you think you're going to win her over with that nonsense?”

Another awkward silence reigned. I expected Matt to deny it, to laugh in his brother's face, protesting that he was being absurd, that the very idea that he could like me was ridiculous, but instead he said:

“Yes. I don't deny it, I like Rosario, and you know it. You don't have to rub it in my face. We owhimher repairing that the door, you shouldn't have done it, Mark.”

Already at that moment, I was petrified with astonishment. Say what? Me? He liked? Matt?

"She won't like you back, you idiot!"

"She would if you didn't bother so much!"

"Take her away!" Mark demanded.

"No," Matt answered firmly, "I know what you did last night, brother."

Right there, I thought I would have a horror induced heart attack

“ I know what you did last night, I understand that you only wanted to scare her and force her to leave. You're afraid she’ll find out what we did, but it was too much. You got out of hand. She's not well, what happened to Amalia has upset her… anyway. I want her to stay a few days, she needs to rest. This is also my house, and therefore she stays.

"If she discovers us, it will be your fault, little brother... don't forget," Mark reminded, in a threatening tone.

I got up from the floor, detached myself from the wall and ran back to my room at supersonic speed, organizing what I had just discovered in order of priority and Shok:

#1 The Montalvos were hiding something. Something terrible, and from what I had heard I suspected it was related to Amalia's murder. Had they killed her? Had it been the twins?

#2 Mark was the one who chased me with the knife last night. The bloody jerk! Apparently he wanted to scare me so that I would return to my town with my tail between my legs and not find out what they were up to, but he nefarious plan had backfired! At that very moment I was under his roof and he would have to stand me even if he didn't want to.

#3 OMG, OMG! Matt Montalvo liked me! I mean…how? Why? Since when? And what's more…he paid to have my dorm door fixed!

I tried to reason with myself that it wasn't important. That Matt liked me was silly, but I couldn't convince myself of that. Moreover, all this gave me a grim cringe, one of the twins wanted to get rid of me, the other had confessed to having feelings for me. Although they never left my list of suspects, worst of all, in a matter of minutes, they had gone to the top of it.


Two hours later there was a knock on my door. I nervously sat on the edge of the bed and took a deep breath.

“ Come in.

The door opened very slowly and Matt stuck his head in.

"Are you still alive?" he asked, giving me a playful smile.

“Yes.” I answered embarrassed.” I'm still alive, thank you.”

"Good." He looked askance at the empty plate that was resting on the nightstand, I got his message and took it in my hands.

"I'll take it to the kitchen and scrub it down," I whispered.

“No need. Lucia will. She has come today.’’

"Lucia?"

"The lady who does the cleaning for us," he explained, stepping back, while I was leaving the room.

Obvious. I thought.

We walked down the hall together, my plate already in my hands and Matt looking at the walls, the floor, even the ceiling, anywhere but me.

"Have you…thought…" he whispered, almost imperceptibly.

"Huh?"

We got to the kitchen, and sure enough, a woman had taken over the whole place. The stove was on, pots were boiling, and a delicious smell assailed my nostrils. My cheeky stomach rumbled and I glanced at Matt sideways. He seemed not to have noticed anything.

He went to a fridge.

Several things happened at the same time, I placed the plate on the counter so as not to drop it, Matt took a bite of the apple he had taken from the fridge and the cleaning lady, who had her back turned on me , turned around.

"Hello!" the smiling woman greeted me. "You must be Rosario, Matty's girlfriend."

I swear I blanched, and Matt choked on the piece of apple he was eating, coughing loudly a few times and patting his chest.

"Who told you that nonsense?" Matt barked, still half choked.

"Ah..." the woman made a face and shook her head. "I'm sorry, when I asked, Mark said..." she looked at me embarrassed.

"It doesn't matter." I shrugged. "I’m a…a friend of Matt's?"

I wasn't sure myself what the hell was I to Matt at the time. I saw him clench his hands into fists, his face contorted, he tossed the apple into the trash and stormed out of the kitchen. Lucía tensed, compressing her lips and looking at me, scared.

"I think I just screwed up," she whispered.

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