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"Belinda? I don't know her." Harold shook his head, his face arranged into just the right amount of confusion.
"I'm a second-year in the med school. I don't really cross paths with students from other departments. I only heard about this a minute ago, standing outside the dining hall when the advisor was going on about it."
He said it easily, and even reached over to hand me a napkin.
"Try not to worry too much. You already reported it, right? They'll get to the bottom of it. And if people start talking behind your back, don't take it to heart. The truth speaks for itself."
Watching Harold play the picture of righteous concern, I gripped that napkin with its faint scent of cedar cologne, my nails almost digging into my palm.
I hadn't expected him to be shameless enough to say something like that.
But to send him to hell too,
I could only crush the anger down and keep playing along.
I sniffed and put on the look of someone still shaken. "Thank you, senior. You're so kind. When Belinda ran, I tried to stop her, and my legs are still weak from it. Everyone thinks I'm crazy. At least you believe me."
"If it were me in that spot, I'd probably be more rattled than you." Harold smiled and slid over a cup of iced orange juice he'd just bought.
"It's hot out. Have something cold, calm down a little. If you ever run into trouble on campus, come find me. I'm Harold."
I wrapped my hands around the cup and put on a moved expression. "Thank you, Harold. You're really too kind."
I softened my voice on purpose, even let a little catch of tears into it.
Seeing me like that, the wariness in his eyes thinned a little more.
He'd already decided that I'd only stumbled into wrecking Belinda's plan by accident.
Everything else, I knew nothing about.
He smiled again. "It's nothing. We're all students here. Helping each other out is only right."
He chatted with me about a couple of harmless bits of campus gossip, then picked up his tray and left first.
On his way out he made a point of telling me again that if anyone gave me trouble, I could come to the med school and find him anytime.
The moment Harold's back disappeared out the dining hall doors, I poured that orange juice straight into the slop bucket beside me.
I wasn't about to drink anything he handed me. Who knew whether he'd slipped in something to muddle my head.
Full and satisfied, I made my way back to the dorm at an easy pace.
My other two roommates were named Patricia Chavez and Margery Finch.
In my last life, both of them had taken payoffs from Belinda.
After I went missing, when my family came to the school looking for me,
the two of them swore up and down that I'd run off with some dyed-blond boy from off campus.
So even years after I was dead, my case was still handled as a disappearance.
When I walked in, they were sitting on their beds whispering to each other.
The second they saw me come in, they clammed up, eyes darting away.
I couldn't be bothered to waste words on them. I'd settle every account, one at a time.
I just grabbed my thermos and headed to the water room to fill it.
But I'd barely reached the corner of the hallway when I heard Patricia making a call in a hushed voice.
I quickly eased back out of sight.
"Yeah, Josephine's back. Nothing off about her, she just ignored us. Okay, got it. If anything comes up, I'll let you know."
Hearing Patricia's exchange with whoever was on the other end, I couldn't help smiling.
Just as I thought. These two were in on it too.
In that case, don't blame me for burying you all together.
