#22:

I was walking towards the hospital, trying to compose my thoughts, when a motorcycle cut into my path. I closed my eyes and prayed it was Ramses, but i had no such luck.
"What are you playing, Rosario?" Matt mumbled, grumpily. "We talked on Thursday and we agreed on something, you disappeared on Friday, your phone was disconnected, you come back on Monday and you don't even look at me, on the contrary, you get lost with that idiot.Do you want to drive me crazy?
“No, Matt. I just changed my mind."
"What?!"
Thank God for my medication, I was as if I was seeing everything from afar, I felt numb, the truth was I didn't care at all. Wow! That medicine was wonderful.
"As you hear it. I'm fine. During the weekend I had an anxiety attack and my mother took me to the psychiatrist. The doctor advised me not to get emotionally involved, at least for now. My mental health is very fragile."
And you're a lying, cheating bastard!
You made me think you liked me and all you wanted was to sleep with me to win a bet with your jerk brother who is the same or worse than you, and it's not that I hate you…but I hope the killer chases you hrough the hospital!
Normally, thinking about all those things would have made me cry, but thanks to being numb, I smiled instead.
"In any case, I'm convinced that the disappointment won't last you long. Talk to Mildred, she seems to know everything about everyone, she will surely know of a girl willing to comfort you."
I tried to keep going but he stopped me.
"Rosy, wait… what do we do about studying together?"
I raised my shoulders.
“It was necessary in surgery because the head professor practically demanded that we do it, but I don't think it's indispensable now we ara beginning to rotate in internal medicine. Oh! And don't worry about the previous state tests, Lizet is lending me her copies."
I kept going, walking slowly and walking away slowly.
Apparently Matt got the message and a few minutes later he was passing me by on his motorcycle.
***
The internal medicine ward was one of the most interesting in which we did rotations. I seem to remember that we began the study diseases of the respiratory system. Patients admitted for pneumonia were very frequent, and later, when we had overcome a large part of the subject, the teachers would focus more on different and interesting cases.
Arriving in the living room that first day, I walked up to Yunior and gave him my most pained smile.
"Yesterday I behaved like a harpy." I was so nervous that I didn't even give you my condolences for the note in surgery.
Yunior smiled back at me.
"Don't worry, at this point getting a three in any subject means being approved, the rest is surplus value.
The days passed and little by little, I noticed that Matt and Lizet seemed to have gotten closer. They would arrive together on the motorcycle, have lunch together and even walk hand in hand.
"Do you want revenge?" a voice whispered in my ear, one afternoon after I left the hospital and saw my almost ex-boyfriend leave on his motorcycle with Lizet.
"No."
The devil released a giggle and I headed to the nearest smoothie stand, feeling like my sugar had run low.
"I'm just saying you could do it." He moved you, he excited you and then he dropped you like a sack of potatoes.
I took a sip of my strawberry milkshake, and looked at him with a blank face.
“Actually, I was the one who made it clear that I didn't want him.
"Oh, please, don't try to fool me... I see your face every time you see him go by with her."
I dropped the straw in a sudden movement and leaned back in my chair, fed up with the hallucination and his irritating, insistent voice.
"What do you propose?" I mumbled, frankly annoyed.
"Use me," he smiled, showing me all his white teeth in a smile that looked more like the menacing bite of a predator. "If you want revenge, use me."
"Who says I want revenge, Mark? I think you're mistaking me with someone else."
He snorted.
"Not at all. I know you, you are the type of girl who suffers in silence. You get depressed easily and you like Linkin Park."
I rolled my eyes nothing he said was new.
Yes, I liked alternative rock music or something like that, I listened to Evanescence, Paramore or Avril Lavigne, it depended on my mood and even during my adolescence I had gone through a very dark period in which I had frequently self-harmed, I still had small cut marks on my right forearm, which I covered with colorful bracelets. But Mark didn't know that. What he was telling me would be known to anyone who…saw my Facebook page?
I went back to my milkshake and he busied himself by devouring a hamburger.
On the opposite sidewalk, Ramses was passing by, who rolled his eyes when he saw us. Mildred also saw us, she made a face as if she had drunk acid and continued on.
However, seeing her reminded me of something very important.
“Tell me something, Mark. When in my life have I sent you photos of myself on WhatsApp?"
He blanched, looking at me in puzzlement.
"What are you talking about?"
At that moment I knew that I was not hallucinating and that yes, Mark Montalvo was sitting at my table, bothering me and making me a proposal that pffff, of course I was going to reject.
"I mean, before what happened happened, Amalia confronted me, she was very upset because I supposedly sent you photos of myself on WhatsApp in an attempt to separate you from her and make you… what, notice me?- I lied.- I don't know, but some of that sounded pretty ridiculous to me. Especially since you have never been a Saint of my devotion. So am I to believe that you steal my Facebook photos?"
For a moment he didn't answer, he was looking anywhere but at me, and it seemed to me that he was… embarrassed?
What tha...?
Mark Montalvo was sorry?
What was this? What had happened to me?
Was it that I had fallen through a hole in the ground and gone straight to Wonderland, where everything was backwards?
"And if I do, what?"
AHA.
There's the real Mark.Menacing, surly and absolutely annoying.
"Why?" I asked, frowning. "We're not even friends on Facebook, I don't understand."
Mark stroked his forehead in frustration.
"No wonder you get only three in all exams. In addition to being dumb, are you deaf? Didn't you hear me clearly the other day? I already told you that I like you, Rosario."
I applauded. I couldn't avoid it.
"Bravo. This must be an important day, the planets are aligning, Armageddon is coming, the apocalypse is here! Mark Montalvo has called me by my name for the first time in years, horror! The stars are falling from the sky!
He seemed uncomfortable but I was not fooled, his performance deserved an Oscar. My mind was dulled by the medication, but I was perfectly capable of remembering that tiny, utterly disgusting moment when I was hiding under a certain bed, listening to certain people doing certain things.
"Look, let's not delay this any longer... I would be incapable of doing what you propose. I don't want "revenge" on Matt. - I mumbled, making the quotation marks with my fingers. - Let alone using you. You disgust me, Mark. I couldn't even shake your hand, and you know why? Well, for the simple fact that first you were Amalia's boyfriend and then you've been having sex with Mildred. I'm sorry, but I don't want you to get all that filth on me."
I got up, grabbed my backpack and got the hell out of there, feeling relieved.