MY ROOMMATE KILLED HER SAVIOR

"It's all your fault for saving me.

You ruined my chance to be Master's bitch." At marching band summer camp, my roommate's legs wouldn't stop shaking, and her face was flushed a strange red.

I was scared something was wrong with her, so I called 911 right away. The doctors took two golf balls out of her body.

The doctor said that if she'd arrived any later, the vibration could have ruptured her uterus. All my roommate felt was hate.

In her eyes I'd stuck my nose in where it didn't belong, and she killed me with rat poison.

When I opened my eyes again, my roommate was right there in front of me, shaking all over.

Chapter 1 "Mmmm…" There it was again, that faint, indescribable sound coming out of Tiffani Loftin's mouth. I followed the sound.

Her legs were trembling and her face was flushed that strange red. Last life, when I saw her like that, I thought she was sick and called 911 right away. Tiffani wasn't sick.

But the doctor did say that if she'd come in any later, the results would have been unthinkable. Because the doctor took two golf balls out of her.

At first Tiffani wouldn't have any of it. "Doctor, please, don't take them out, I'm really fine, just let me hold on a little longer!" "Is this a joke to you?

A girl your age, treating your own body like it's nothing!" The older attending physician actually gave a damn, and he lost his temper. "A little longer in there and the vibration would have ruptured your uterus." In the end the two golf balls came out anyway.

And Tiffani didn't thank me for getting her to the hospital in time.

She hated me for it. "Juniper, who asked you to butt in?" "My Master said if I could hold out until camp ended, he'd let me be his bitch.

You ruined all of it!" In the end, furious, she went out and quietly bought rat poison, put it in my cup, and killed me with it.

This time around, I glanced over at whatever was going on with Tiffani and looked away. This time, I'd learned my lesson. I wasn't stepping into other people's messes.

Whether she lived or died had nothing to do with me. What mattered was that I didn't die again.

Last life I was the first one to say Tiffani was sick, so that's what everybody thought.

This life I didn't say anything, but it didn't take long for other people in the band to notice something was off with her.

Eventually even the instructor did. "Hey, you over there — yeah, you. What's going on with you?

Do you need to go to the health center?" Tiffani had her knees pressed together and sweat running down her forehead drop by drop, and when she spoke there was that suggestive drag at the end of her words. "I'm fiiine…" The instructor frowned, then snapped, "Go take care of it yourself!" The bandmates with some experience got it too. "Holy shit, people do that?" "That's messed up, right?" "How desperate do you have to be?" Tiffani was frantic.

She begged the instructor through her tears. "Please don't send me away, sir, we'll be dismissed soon, please." The instructor lifted his wrist and checked his watch.

Ten minutes until the midday break. He didn't want to throw everyone off, so he wasn't going to dismiss us early. Tiffani couldn't get out of there fast enough.

On the way to the dining hall, people were talking. "What is even wrong with her?" "Nothing's wrong with her. She's just into some sick stuff.

Normal that you girls wouldn't get it." "We should thank her, though. We got out early." My other two roommates and I walked fast toward the dining hall.

The two of them said they wanted to get their food and take it back to the room.

Chapter 2 "Let's just eat here," I said. "When we're done, ice cream's on me." Gabriela and Corinne both laughed. "Deal." I breathed a little easier.

This life I was keeping my distance from Tiffani, so that ungrateful snake couldn't pin anything on me. We ate, we got ice cream, and then we took our time walking back to the dorm.

We'd just reached our door when we heard Tiffani's voice. "You finally picked up. We got dismissed, so can I take them out now?" "What? I have to keep going all afternoon?

But I really can't take it." "Don't be mad, I— I won't take them out, I can hold on, I will hold on!" Gabriela and Corinne looked at me, and without a word the three of us hurried down to the window at the end of the hall. "She really does have those little toys inside her?

I heard the guys talking about it." "It's so humiliating. And she's in our room." "Who told her to put them in? She sounded like she was in so much pain.

Is something going to happen to her?" Of course something was going to happen. Last life the doctor spelled it out.

Those two weren't ordinary golf balls — there were devices inside them, and the remote was in her Master's hand. With every vibration, the balls worked their way deeper.

By now, even if Tiffani went to the hospital herself, it wouldn't help. Gabriela, Corinne, and I decided we hadn't seen anything and didn't know anything.

I'd learned my lesson from last life.

The two of them just thought Tiffani was twisted for playing games like that, and they were worried she'd catch some filthy disease and pass it to the rest of us.

But the three of us still had to go back to the room for the midday break. We had practice again that afternoon. When we came in, Tiffani was lying in bed moaning in pain.

The second she heard us, she bit down hard on her lip to keep herself quiet. The three of us traded one look, perfectly in sync, said nothing, and got into our beds.

Sleep wasn't happening. Tiffani held it in for a while and then couldn't anymore, and the moaning started sounding worse and worse. I just put my earbuds in.

Gabriela and Corinne put theirs in too. Tiffani was digging her own grave. Fine by me. By the time we got up, her face was a frightening shade of white.

Where she'd been lying, even the blanket was soaked through, never mind her clothes.

The three of us sprayed ourselves down with sunscreen, changed into our practice clothes, and were about to leave. "Juniper…" Tiffani's weak voice stopped me.

Just hearing her made me physically sick, and I didn't bother being nice. "Call time's in a minute. You'd better hurry.

We're going." Tiffani sounded wounded. "Can't you see how bad I feel? Somebody could at least help me up…" I wasn't going to stand there and listen. I was already out the door.

Gabriela and Corinne couldn't quite stomach it. "If you feel that bad, just ask to be excused," they said, and then they caught up with me. "Somebody says something and it's the word of God to her.

How is she that obedient?" Gabriela muttered. I wondered too. Last life, right up until I died, I never saw Tiffani's socalled Master. Who was he?

We'd been lined up a long time before Tiffani finally came out. The instructor took one look at her and saw she was worse than that morning.

He refused to let her keep drilling, no matter what she said. Chapter 3 "Either you go back to your room right now or you go to the health center.

Something happens to you out here and it's on me." The instructor turned and waved over a few of the student staffers standing off to the side. "Don't!" Tiffani took a big step forward, swaying now, her voice so weak it was hard to make out the words. "Just let me get through the afternoon, don't tell the assistant director…" "Tiffani!" Gabriela pointed behind her and shouted. "You're bleeding so much!" Tiffani's swaying body finally gave out, and she dropped to the ground.

This time it was the student staffers who called 911, and the ambulance took her to the hospital.

I watched them load Tiffani in, then looked around, trying to spot which one was her Master, whether he was somewhere close by watching.

It didn't take long for the story to go around our section. "You will never guess.

The doctors pulled two vibrating golf balls out of her." "Damn, she's into some freaky stuff." "Why wouldn't she take them out?

Why push it that far?" "I think it was an assignment." "The doctor said her uterus is badly infected.

She'll have a hard time ever getting pregnant." None of it gave me much satisfaction. If it were up to me, I'd want Tiffani to answer to the law.

Where she'd ended up just made me sigh. How can a person take care of her own body that badly?

When we were dismissed that evening, our section leader suggested sending a few girls to the hospital to sit with her, because the school had called the parents she'd listed as her emergency contacts.

Her parents didn't want anything to do with her. The tragedy of the family you're born into. I volunteered. "I'll go." Gabriela and Corinne looked surprised.

I said quietly, "We do live with her. If none of us goes, it looks bad. People will talk." Then, at a normal volume, I said to the two of them, "I'll take today.

I'll be back before curfew." In the end it was me and Dante, our section leader, who went. Tiffani still hadn't woken up. It was almost eight before her eyes slowly opened.

The moment she realized she was in a hospital, the pain stopped mattering. She shot upright, threw back the blanket, and looked down between her legs.

We thought she was worried about how bad it was. Instead she blurted out, "Where are the golf balls?" Dante stepped closer. "The doctors took them out.

They also said—" "Who told you to take them out?" Tiffani screamed. "Do you have any idea what those two golf balls meant? That was my ticket into marrying a rich family.

You wrecked my shot at marrying rich.

Can you afford to pay me back for that?" Dante: "???" I walked over. "We're not the ones who told the doctors to take them out, so why are you yelling at us?

The school called your parents, your parents didn't care, and that's the only reason Dante and I are here sitting with you." "The ambulance was the school's call too.

If you don't like it, go blow up the hospital." Dante looked startled. He hadn't expected me to be that blunt.

If last life hadn't happened, I never would have talked like that, even with Tiffani acting like a lunatic. "My phone! Where's my phone?" she shouted.

Dante pulled the phone out of the practice shorts set off to the side and handed it to her. Chapter 4 Tiffani made a call. It rang a long time before someone picked up.

She was crying. "I didn't take the golf balls out, I passed out— No!

I can do it, just give me one more chance, please…" "Could you keep it down?" said the older woman in the next bed. Tiffani didn't care.

She kept crying into the phone. "Give me one more chance, please." Me: "…" How is it possible for a person to be this stupid?

The woman in the next bed got fed up and called a nurse. The nurse asked Dante and me, "What are you two to her?" "We're her classmates.

Her parents wouldn't come, so the assistant director sent us," Dante said, which was also his way of putting distance between himself and Tiffani. It was too humiliating.

The nurse told Tiffani to keep her voice down. The call had been cut off. Tiffani screamed at the nurse through her tears, "What do you know? Everything I had is ruined!

Ruined!" The nurse's voice went sharp. "You need to rest. Your uterus is already infected. It's going to be very hard for you to ever get pregnant.

Or do you still want to—" "What?" It was obvious she was only now hearing about her own condition. "I can't get pregnant?" She dialed the same number again.

This time the man on the other end shouted, and I heard it. "Do you ever shut the hell up?

Stop calling me—" "I can't get pregnant!" Tiffani broke, sobbing out loud. "The doctor said I'll never be able to get pregnant. What am I supposed to do?

Please — please come to the hospital right now. Hello? Hello!" She wouldn't let it go and called again, but this time he'd blocked her.

Tiffani threw the phone down and screamed. "Aaaaah—" It took a sedative from the doctor and the nurse before she went quiet.

The next day, after practice, the assistant director came to see us. "You all know about Tiffani's situation by now.

Her parents won't help her, but she needs to stay in the hospital for observation a while longer, and she can't cover it.

So I was wondering if our section could chip in a little." In the end everyone pitched in eight hundred dollars through the GroupMe, sent it over on Venmo, and put it toward Tiffani's hospital bill.

Two weeks later, right as camp ended and the fall semester started, Tiffani was discharged and came back to school. Her story had already gone around the whole campus.

The second she showed up, every eye turned to her. "That's Tiffani Loftin." "Damn, she's impressive. She fit two golf balls up there." "I can't even think about it.

It hurts to think about." "Had to be an assignment from her Master." "You think her Master's going to make her crawl across the practice field in a collar?" "Or run a lap around the practice field naked." Everyone watched her, and the moment she came near, everyone gave her a wide berth.

Tiffani kept her head down and walked fast back to the room.

Gabriela and Corinne saw her, hesitated, and then went over anyway. "Tiffani, are you okay…" "Mind your own business!" Tiffani shouted, furious.

Gabriela and Corinne gave her an enormous eye roll. "Like we want to." "What are you losing it at us for?

We're not the ones who put golf balls inside you." Neither of them spoke to Tiffani after that. I didn't either. My phone buzzed. Gabriela had started a group chat.

Just the three of us in it. Chapter 5 Gabriela: [Should we all go to the assistant director together and get our room changed?] Corinne: [Let's go right now.

I'm not living in the same room as her.] Gabriela: [She's a campus celebrity now and we're stuck getting stared at with her.

I'm so done.] Gabriela: [@Juniper why aren't you saying anything?] I was already sitting up. I gave the two of them a look, and we went out.

But the assistant director checked with the housing office for us, and came back with this: "Every room is full. There's nothing to move around.

You three will have to make do." "And you're all classmates. You should be helping each other. Tiffani has some problems with her attitude.

You girls should help her with that too." Nothing we could do. The three of us went back and went on living with Tiffani.

So now, everywhere we went, we were "Tiffani Loftin's roommates." I used to think that once you got to college, people would have wised up a little, that you wouldn't run into this many idiots