Intuition

Part 1

There was a murderer loose in Terrace Hall, but Rosa Conway was unconcerned. Elise's disappearance had shaken up the entire campus from the start, so it didn't help when cops found her body in the Jackson River three days prior. The finger-pointing began almost immediately, with accusatory glances and disconcerted stares falling mostly on Allen Feldmen. Allen was the resident "weirdo." He walked with an uneven gait and wore a trench coat and carried a large, unmarked duffle bag with him everywhere he went. He was the ultimate stereotype of the shady, unstable college student. 

But Rosa viewed him differently than her peers did. His name was the first on people's lips when Elise was found cold-bodied, but Rosa didn't want to judge unfairly. He was an odd guy, for sure. But he had never done anyone wrong. She was sure he didn't even know Elise. There was no proof for Allen's guilt, so Rosa treated him the way she always had - with indifference mixed with sympathy. 

She had spoken to Allen only once, at Freshman Orientation in August. He stood behind her in the serving line. She attempted to strike up a conversation, but it fell flat almost immediately. They had nothing in common, and Allen's refusal to make eye contact made her slightly uncomfortable. She excused herself politely to go meet her dad on the other side of the dining hall, and dismissed the entire interaction from her recollection of an otherwise wonderful day. 

Mr. Conway had watched Rosa extract herself from the line, a look of clear relief on her face. He smiled to himself, making a mental note to tease her about it later. He only had a few more weeks of Rosa living under his roof, depending on him in the way she had for the last 18 years. Single-fatherhood had proven to be the most challenging, yet rewarding, part of his life. He had raised Rosa on his own since she was four years old, when her mother left for Alabama in the middle of the night, neglecting to even leave a note. They had no contact with her until last Christmas, when she sent 17-year-old Rosa and her father a Christmas card of her skiing in Colorado. Mr. Conway had read it unemotionally, then given it to Rosa, who tossed it into the garbage without a second thought. The two of them had been fine on their own. Mr. Conway took to parenting naturally, and the gender divide between him and his daughter proved to be nonexistent. They were best friends, and they both knew it. Rosa was eternally grateful for her father, who had been a bastion of support and safety her entire life. Mr. Conway couldn't imagine a life of meaning without her. 

Rosa would reflect on her sunny childhood in the coming months, when her life changed dramatically from living with her father to living with her socialite roommate. As she heard her peers speaking about their lives at home and how they had grown up, she grew infinitely more grateful for everything her father had done. 

The most obvious juxtaposition to Rosa's cheery past was Allen Feldman's dark one. Allen grew up in modest suburbia, with normal parents, a normal dog, and a normal little sister. When he was home, Allen was a normal son. When he was at school, Allen was a parasite, a loser, and a creep. Girls ignored him, and boys tortured him. The negative attention from his male peers was still attention, and maybe that's what caused him to begin to foster a burning hatred for his female classmates as early as 5th grade. In elementary school, boys squashed him in gym. Middle school was the worst. The boys stole his possessions, left threatening notes in his locker, and exposed him in gym class. The girls, who had previously been friendly towards him, began to ignore him. To Allen, this was the most despicable crime against him. It was a betrayal. He knew that the boys who bullied him were bad all along, but the girls, for the most part, turned their back to him. This was what hurt him the most. By the time he hit high school, everyone started calling him gay. Allen was very much a heterosexual, but his lack of proper masculinity in the eyes of his peers left him victim to vicious rumors. Girls would only approach him for GBF-type friendship, which made him feel like an object. The boys either insulted him or ignored him. Friendless and alone, Allen graduated high school with honors and a gaping hole in the empathy center of his brain.