The Degrees of Obsession

Chapter5

Clad in matching white lab coats, the laboratory buzzed with the energy of the students, split into pairs as they worked on their designated workstations.

Koko and her lab partner, Jasmin, were at one end seamlessly working together. Meanwhile, at the opposite end, Marilyn's patience was hanging by a thread. Her partner, Austin refused to cooperate. Each time she tried to correct him in the middle of an error, he would glare at her or shove her hand away. Marilyn gripped the edge of the table in frustration, but she was still determined to work with him to get it over with.

Few minutes went by when she totally lost it and shoved him a little to take over the medical dummy.

"You are not doing it right, your hand isn't supposed to be pushing forward with that kind of force, just imagine doing this to a real patient in a hospital."

Austin shoved her right back, but with force which made her stumble back a little bit.

That caught the attention of Dr. Dean, who was a few feet away from them.

"What's going on here?" He demanded as he walked towards both of them. All the other students now had their attention on the three of them.

Marilyn glared at him and was about to explain the altercation, but Austin caught her off.

"She just wants to take over the whole practical, she never gives room for us both to work together."

"That's a lie sir, I've been tolerating him all this while." She pointed to their work station. "Our practical is on Diagnostic Hysteroscopy, Austin keeps pushing the scope forward, with force while looking only at the monitor. I tried to correct him before he damaged the equipment but he pushed me."

Dr. Dean fixed his grey eyes on Marilyn as she spoke, looking intently at her.

"What's your name?" He finally asked.

"Marilyn. Marilyn Alvarez."

He looked over at Austin. "And yours?"

"Austin Myers." He muttered.

"I saw you push her. I'm not going to let this escalate any further. But if I notice any sort of misbehaviour from you again, you'll be forced to leave the lab. You're both adults and she's your lab partner; you both are supposed to work together, if she sees something wrong with what you are doing, she has the right to make an effort to correct it. This should be the last time this happens. Have I made myself clear?"

Austin was fuming, but he nodded."

"Have I made myself clear?" He asked again.

Through clenched teeth, Austin reluctantly replied, "Yes sir."

Dr. Dean's gaze softened a bit as he looked back at Marilyn. "You may get back to work."

He turned around and walked back to his desk.

As Marilyn was about to return to the workstation, Austin gripped the fabric of her coat and leaned close to her ear.

"You better watch your back Alvarez." He whispered in a dangerously low voice, like a warning. Even though her heart raced in panic, she didn't show it, she just ignored him and continued her work.

Unbeknownst to them both, Dr. Dean had his gaze fixed on Marilyn the whole time.

*******

"I swear to God, if not that Jasmin had a tight grip on my wrist, I was so close to storming over there and beating that dickhead to a pulp," Koko said as they sat in their usual seats in the lecture hall.

Marilyn wasn't surprised, but she laughed anyway. Her best friend has gotten into many fights on her behalf since when they were in high school. A few times back then, Marilyn had hidden instances from her about getting bullied because she didn't want to get Koko in trouble for fighting.

"I'm glad she held you back though, but thank you for always helping me kick ass all these years." She said with a small smile.

Koko put her arm around her shoulder. "Don't thank me, that's what best friends are for, having each other's backs."

Marilyn gave her a quick hug before pulling away.

"I can't believe we only have few weeks left before finals start." Marilyn said as she flipped through her notes.

"Yeah, brace yourself because we are about to get bombarded with tests upon tests." Koko replied as she scrolled through her phone.

Marilyn was skimming through her notes when her phone dinged and lit up with a notification. She unlocked the phone and tapped on the banner flashing on the screen.

"A new follower." She muttered to herself and clicked the profile. The username was "Dee Sim", there was no profile picture and a tag that read "new", with just two followers.

"Koko, do you have an idea who this might be?" She handed her phone over to her.

Koko's brows furrowed, "Uh, no clue at all. And no bio either, the person is obviously new to Instagram."

Marilyn took her phone back and stared at it. "Do you think I should follow back?"

Koko shrugged, "I mean, if you want to. It's kinda sketchy; it would have been better if the person put a simple bio or even a profile picture."

"Yeah, you're right." She said as her thumb hovered over the "follow back" button. After a few seconds of hesitating, she tapped it, set her phone face down on the desk and went back to studying.

"f**k!" Koko broke the silence. When she noticed she got few stares from her course mates, she slapped a hand over her mouth.

Marilyn looked over at her, raising a brow. "Are you okay?"

She leaned closer to her and turned her phone screen toward Marilyn's face. It was a mirror selfie of Dr. Dean in a gym.

She sighed and pushed the phone away. "Really Koko? You're still stalking him?"

"I'm not! I'm following him, remember? I think he posted this yesterday but I'm just coming across it. Look at those damn biceps and his legs. My eyes have been blessed with this pic of him in shorts." She said and double-tapped the picture before taking a screenshot.

Marilyn raked her fingers through her brunette hair. "You're crazy. Wait, did he actually follow you back?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, I was so surprised. And he obviously doesn't know me anyway, so that makes it even much easier to drool over his pictures or even use them as my wallpaper."

"Oh my God." She flipped her notes shut and put them in her bag. "Since you're definitely not going to let me finish studying, we may as well just go back to the dorms."

They both got up, with Koko still staring at the picture, as she didn't make any move to move, Marilyn had to grab her arm and pull her out of the lecture hall.