The Devil on Her Shoulder (gxg)

Part 7- Suspects Arise

Sleep was barely a thing since Mila died.

I couldn't get the image of her, lying on the floor, out of my head.

Every single time I closed my eyes, I saw her lifeless body on the floor.

It was a little after 3 am, and I could not sleep for the life of me.

I went downstairs- I was going to go sit outside in the small backyard. It was cold, but I didn't care.

This irrational fear took over me as I walked down the steps.

Am I going to find another one of my roommates dead on the floor?

Thankfully, I did not.

But when I got to the screen door to the backyard, I did see Natalie there- smoking a cigarette. She had on a hoodie and sweatpants, and her hair was in a bun.

I opened the door gently, to not startle her.

But I startled her anyway.

She whipped her head around furiously.

"Fuck, Cassidy! You scared me." she said.

"I'm sorry." I said, "Can I sit next to you?"

"Yeah." Natalie nodded, moving over so I could sit on the step outside the door next to her.

"Can't sleep?" I asked her.

"Obviously." Natalie said, in an annoyed tone, taking a drag of her cigarette.

I decided to ignore it. "Same here. I haven't been able to sleep since Mila died."

Natalie practically winced as I said the last part of my sentence.

"Same here." she said, "It's been keeping me up at night."

I wasn't quite sure how to respond. I didn't want to be too invasive- I wasn't very close with Natalie, like I was with Nicki and Serena.

Natalie then turned to me and said, "Mila and I got into fight the night she died. It's been fucking with me like crazy."

I looked at Natalie. "I know. I saw you and her fighting outside of the hookah bar the night of."

"Fuck." Natalie sighed, "That looks so bad on me. Yes, we fought. Mila and I fought a lot. But I swear, I didn't do this to her. I would never."

Something about Natalie's tone was telling to me.

It was telling me that she didn't do it. Either that or she was a phenomenal actress. But the desperation in her voice was telling me she did not kill Mila.

"I believe you." I said to Natalie.

She looked at me, her eyes watering. "You do? I literally feel so guilty. The last thing I said to Mila was 'go fuck yourself'. Cassidy, it's haunting me. I feel sick over it."

Natalie then burst into tears. I had never seen Natalie cry before- I could barely even picture her crying. But she now had her head in her hands and was sobbing.

I wrapped my arm around her.

"It's okay. I promise you, it's okay." I said to her, "I'm sure Mila knew you didn't mean it. I know she didn't."

Natalie lifted her head and looked to the star filled sky. "I hope she knew I didn't actually mean it."

"What was your fight about?" I asked her.

Natalie's expression hardened.

"I can't say." she said.

I furrowed my brow. "Okay. I will respect that."