I heard a rumor . . .

ALEXANDER CONTRERAS

{ ANGEL BISMARK CURIEL, TWENTY-THREE, GENDERFLUID, HE/HIM* } Is that ALEXANDER ‘ALEX’ CONTRERAS? A JUNIOR originally from MANHATTAN, NY, they decided to come to Ogden College to study CLASSICS . They’re THE PUPPETMASTER on campus, but even they could get blamed for Greer’s disappearance. 

*Even if Alex doesn’t identify as a cis-man, he still chooses to use he/him pronouns.

Hello everyone! I’m Luna, and I’ll be playing my problematic baby Alex. Here is some info about him! 

Derya sat on her bed, fingers wrapped around her blanket in an effort to calm her nerves. No, he wasn’t too bad, but intimidating to say the least. She couldn’t quite place Alex in all of this and didn’t try to pretend she understood him of all people. He’d always seemed to be in control – over himself, over those around him, and Derya couldn’t deny how she felt about him even if she tried. “No… just someone trying to scare us.” She didn’t mind the multiple questions at once, though she didn’t consider herself an insider on all things Greer. With a shrug Derya shook her head, unable to come up with a plausible idea, that might push her to such actions. “They say people with a god complex try to always be above others, like in higher buildings, control them from somewhere else.” Her dislike for Greer was evident now. “I mean.. there’s just no explanation. Maybe something else happened, I really don’t know,” Derya stuttered her way through the answer, fidgeting with her fingers as she did. God, why him of all people? “If you’re so interested, why not go and search for her?”

The fact that his roommate was Derya, of all people, had always felt like some sort of karmic joke on him. Sometimes, Alex couldn’t stand her perpetual deer-in-highlights eyes, and sometimes he found them funny. Still, they had never had a problem so far; she never touched his shit, and they even engaged in some  occasionally chit chat (whenever he wasn’t too busy thinking about something else to ignore her presence at all). “Where did you get that from?” Alex shot Derya an amused look at her words, as if he was surprised she dared say something remotely negative about someone - even if that someone might not ever come back. “Not that I don’t agree with it, by the way.” Then, a scoff. “If you think I care enough to spend my time looking for her, you have not been paying attention. I don’t know about you, but I have no intention of turning into Sherlock fucking Holmes.” 

“I don’t know,” Mari muttered, the words clipped as she immediately dismissed them, trying to shut down the conversation all together. It was…well, a sensitive subject, thinking of everything that had come after those messages had been received that night, and not to mention the all too fresh reminder that she still hadn’t texted back Mari. She sighed when Alex continued, glancing up at him with a raise of one eyebrow. “I mean, it’s Greer. She’s not someone you worry about,” she replied, shrugging up her shoulders. “I’m sure wherever she is, she’s having a blast. But that doesn’t mean what she’s doing isn’t fucked up, communicating from the grave or not,” she pointed out, her hurt having been rather unproductively channeled into anger ever since homecoming, Mari unable to deal with her emotions towards the blonde in any other way. “And you know Greer. Always wants to be the center of attention. This is just another way to guarantee that.” 

Alex found it quite funny, the possibility of Mari trying to hold a ghost to moral standards. By the way Mari was talking about it, it almost felt to Alex like she had taken her dissapearence as something personal. “The messages must have really freaked you out, didn’t they?” Greer or not, what those messages had caused was undeniable; Alex could’ve almost heard the collective gasp the moment it was received. It made sense; Greer just had a talent for finding out private stuff about people, a talent that Alex had always respected. “I don’t think it was her, but if it was... then she definitely managed to get that attention she craved, right? People can’t stop talking about her.” Specially now that there was a missing person file with her name.

with droplets of water still clinging to her smooth skin, she reaches the door of her dorm room in a rush and tightens her bathrobe, clearly delighted to see none other than alex before her. “far too long i must say,” she chuckles when her eyes focus on the bottle, impressed by the distinct attention to details. “white wine. my favourite. you remembered.” it goes without a saying perhaps, but mabel likes to be noticed, adored, given everything that she wants. “it’s a fair trade. my roommate’s not here tonight so we have the entire room to ourselves. please make yourself comfortable while i go and try to find a bottle opener.”

God. Mabel looked so good, Alex couldn’t believe he had stayed away for so long. The stressed aura of everyone on campus must have clinged to him, to have made him forget how much of a good time he had with her. “Of course I remember. Who do you take me for?” Alex scoffed, pretending to be offended as he walked inside the room. “A lousy one night stand? Please.” He closed the door behind him, even if his eyes never left her body. “Feel free to stay with that outfit, too. I don’t mind.” Maybe he had chosen the right time to come visit. 

How was Parisa dealing with it? “It’s stressful, but I know it’s harder on some people,” she responded, choosing her words carefully around Alex. “I would enjoy it more if I knew what was happening. If she just said ‘hey I changed my mind and I decided to travel for the semester, see you in the spring’, I would’ve loved some alone time. But knowing she’s missing, that knowledge is more unsettling than any enjoyment of effectively having a single.” Glancing over at the man, Parisa raised an eyebrow inquisitively. “What do you think happened, then? I know you’re a smart man and all, Alex. Just curious, no judgement.”

“I think she is in an extended holiday, and didn’t tell anyone to screw the people at Ogden. A sort of goodbye ‘fuck you’, if you will.” Greer letting anyone know what is going through her mind? That didn’t sound much like her. “You must’ve known her better than anyone on campus, living with her and everything. Better than her friends, even. So...” Alex turnt to look at Parisa, and it almost felt like he was doing a dramatic pause.  “The million dollar question: did she send the messages? What is your theory?” 

    “Actually, yeah,” he answered as a matter-of-fact, letting a second pass before he let out a quiet snort. Kian was mistrustful way before Greer went missing but having the cops around campus for a while had him feeling uneasy enough. Thankfully they were gone but Ogden was still full of nosy fuckers trying to sniff out leads on the Golden Girl when they should just be minding their own business. “I can be chill, but what’s the fun in that?” He was chill right now, this was chill. Right? He was just sitting, didn’t mean he liked people looking at him. 

Parisa didn’t know what to think - if she was being honest, she was tired of thinking about the what ifs regarding Greer’s disappearance. She was not in denial that it was a serious matter, but for just one moment she wanted things to not revolve around her absent roommate like the rain cloud that was hovering over Ogden College. “Well, we don’t know what happened so I guess everyone is just speculating at this point. I doubt the police will share any findings with us,” the brunette mused nonchalantly, not looking up from her digital drawing tablet as she colored in a design with her stylus. “Everyone has their own theory, really.”

Curiously looking over at the woman, Alex raised his eyebrows. “How are you dealing with it?” Alex’s tone almost made it sound like he was genuinly concerned by Parisa’s emotional state, and not that he was trying to fish for any information possible to use it in a future interaction. “It musn’t have been easy, being her roommate and all. Are you enjoying having the room for yourself?” Alex wasn’t going to lie, he mostly said that just to see the woman’s reaction. He didn’t even know if they had given Greer’s spot to someone else. Which, if she had ran away, it would’ve been fair, but if someone had happened to her... that was a bit heartless. 

He watched with a growing frown as Alex patted down his pockets, a frantic energy rolling off of him in waves. It was less the fidgeting and more the direction of their conversation that put Monty on edge, making him think a little more seriously about things he’d successfully ignored – or joked about – since returning to Ogden. “Why wouldn’t it be Greer?” he piped up, half of him wondering if Alex was about to give him a smackdown with some infallible logic. Monty was still firmly in the camp that Greer was alive and well, simply taking an extended vacation without any notice. The whole getting-questioned-by-the-cops deal probably should’ve rang some alarm bells, but he just didn’t think it was that serious. Not yet, anyway. “If anyone’s gonna skip a couple week of classes but not let anyone forget about them, it’s her,” Monty pointed out with a short-lived eyeroll, huffing quietly. “And, I mean, the texts and everything came from her number, too, yeah? I find it hard to believe anyone around here would bother to spoof her number…” Or personally had her cell phone in their possession? Yeah, that was a worrying thought.

“Oh, because no one in the history of humanity has ever stolen a fucking phone?” Alex replied, annoyed about the fact that he had given up on finding a spare cigarette in any of his pockets. How ironic. He was talking to the campus’ dealer and he couldn’t even smoke. “Even if no one stole it, I don’t think Greer is above losing it.” With all the money she has, she could lose one phone every day for all she probably cared. “I definitely believe that Greer is in some beach in the Bahamas right now, I just don’t think she would care enough to send stupid message texts to the people in campus if she had decided that she was too good for Ogden.” The diference between what Monty seemed to believe and what Alex did, was that Alex didn’t think she was gonna come back, at all. “Besides, she hasn’t been answering any of the private text people have sent to her, at least that I know of.” Not that Alex had sent any, but that was what he had heard around.

          Wilder had not thought too much about everything going on with the Greer stuff. There were plenty of other things to think and talk about around campus other than Greer. He didn’t understand how people were talking about this still. “Please, it was someone trying to capitalize on her being missing.” Even if he didn’t believe that, Wilder was trying to be rational about all this. “If I were a ghost, that’s exactly how I’d act.” But he wasn’t a ghost. He was a tired college man who barely had time for all his work let alone thinking about Greer Morrison’s disappearance. They hadn’t even been friends like some of the other people. “You know murder mysteries type things… they’re always the jaded ex lover or ugly step sibling. My mom’s defended so many of those people before.” Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was weird. And Greer knew things about him that could ruin his life. She’d have no reason to reveal it. “Isn’t it more dramatic this way?” 

Alex was glad to find someone else who sounded to have the certainty that the one sending the messages wasn’t Greer. Who would’ve thought that it would be Wilder, of all people? “Really? You’d send messages to people who were close to you to have them on their toes?” Of course Alex didn’t believe in ghosts, but if he did, he wasn’t sure that would be his first course of action in the afterlife. His eyes looked at some point in the horizon, and there was a pause where Alex seemed to get lost in his thoughts for moment before giving Wilder a smirk.  “It’s interesting to hear who you think did it.” The jaded ex lover. It was a good guess, but it was an even more interesting piece of information about were Wilder stood in the whole conspiracy tournament that was taking place in the campus about Greer. “Honestly? I think she got tired and left, and just didn’t tell anyone about it.”      

-

Avery gave a slight tilt of her head – consideration of his viewpoint. “Trying to solve boredom without it,” she admitted. “Especially in the day time.” A small step toward some stability. Or for her, more accurately, a small step away from chaos. Classes usually did the trick. But one only had so many of those. If cops are what entertains you, I’m not sure what else could peak your interest. “You ever, uh, try solving one of those wooden puzzles?” Just bringing them up in a conversation made her lips twitch faintly at one side. They were so nerdy. “I fuck with those.” Avery wouldn’t consider herself an intellectual by any means but she found the process of figuring the puzzles out gratifying. Something about taking something complicated and making it simple eased her mind. At Alex’s offer, a brow of Avery’s pushed upwards first, gauging the sincerity of his generosity, before she stretched out a hand. “Yeah, I’ll take it off your hands.” She tenderly clipped the offered cigarette between two fingers and put it between her lips, taking a long drag before speaking again. It was just what she was looking for: something to do. “Yikes.” Someone was a glutton for feeling miserable. “For what reason?”

Alex raised his eyebrows at Avery’s revelation, just before letting out an incredulous laughter. “Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.” Despite her mocking tone, the man almost found it endearing how someone who liked partying and drugs so much could have such an innocent hobbie.

Her question caused a loud sigh from him, clearly still not on good terms with his decision. “Swimming season is starting, and I need all the extra air I can get.” He often ended up in second place, and he hated it. If quitting was what it took for him to win, then so be it; It was a sacrifice he was willing to make. After all, he had his entire life to smoke away. “Have you considered joining a sport? Even if you’re not a good team player, there are options that don’t involve cooperation.” Alex paused, before adding. “Although joining a team might be what you need. They don’t ever leave you the fuck alone.”  

When Mabel opened the door of her place, Alex was waiting for her leaning a near wall, a slight smirk appearing on his lips the moment she appeared. “Long time no see.” What had been, a week? They were busy people, but that didn’t mean that Alex had forgotten about her. “I got you something.” Straightening himself from where he was leaning, he raised his gift in his hand and shook it a little; the bottle of the most expensive white wine that the nearest liquor store to the campus had to offer was waiting for them to open it. “Bottle for your thoughts?” 

“You don’t really think it was Greer who sent that message the other day, right?” People talking about the texts as if they were sent from the Greer Morrison was driving Alex’s mad, even if he couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact reason of why. “People are acting as if a ghost was communicating from the grave. Give me a fucking break.” The male searched in his pockets for a cigarette package that wasn’t there, before remembering he had decided earlier that week that he was truly quitting smoking this time. How annoying of past him to do. In Alex’s mind, it was either one of two options; either Greer was gone for good, and people can’t text from the grave, or she ran away, God knows why, and wouldn’t have time to mess with them... right? “If it really was her, why would she need to leave in order to pull this little show of hers? Why not doing it from here?”