To Laundry or not laundry, that is the question.

Get up, Jasmine. Do your laundry! No, I don't wanna do it. I'd rather stay in bed. Jasmine, just because you're mourning your best friend's murder, doesn't mean you get to skip out on laundry. It's been two fucking weeks, and only a week since the funeral, give me a damn break. Says the one talking to herself.

"FINE I'LL DO IT!!" I yelled to no one, though I'm pretty sure my loud outburst could be heard through the thin walls of our dorm hall. I squeezed my pink Build-a-Bear, the one my best friend, Josephine had gotten for my birthday. I missed her so much.

2 weeks ago, on a crisp, Autumn afternoon, Josephine was found murdered in a parking garage on campus. Her skin was pale, lips bluer than the evening sky right before the moon could rise, but most horrifying of all was the knife sticking out of her heart. She was poisoned, but her murderer had decided to stab her as well. The detectives think the murderer might have heard someone walking nearby and stabber her in a hurry to kill her so she wouldn't be able to call out for help.

A sudden knocking at my door pulled me away from my thoughts.

"Yes?" I called out, my voice cracking a bit from lack of use the past few days.

"It's me, Beck, your RA!"

I jumped up and opened the door, and let him in. "Whats up?"

"Just- " He looked at my face, pity flashing through his eyes. I realized there were tears on my face, and wiped them away. "I'm just checking up on you, I know what happened, and I didn't know when you'd be back."

"Yeah, I came back on Monday. I didn't want to miss too much, plus I think the detectives had more questions for me. How'd you know I came back?"

"Well," he looked away and scratched his head. "Jack, the guy living across from you, hear you yelling, and well uh-"

"Oh!" I rubbed my forehead in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I was uh- well this sounds embarrassing, but I was arguing with myself whether to get out of bed or actually do my laundry."

He glanced at my full laundry basket then back at me and smiled. "I have to do my laundry too, lets go to the laundry room together?"

Normally I'd decline and make up some dumb excuse, but Beck is a nice person and I knew he was just looking out for me. He really cares about his residents, and actually took the time to get to know us during the first few weeks of the year.

"Sure!" I said, grabbed my basket and detergent, and followed him out the door.

"My basket is already there, I got the text right when I got to the room."

"Oh, cool."

"So, is it okay if I ask you about her?"

"Josephine? Um sure... For starters we've been best friends ever since I moved to my hometown in 6th grade. I met her in choir. She's trans, but back then she identified as a boy. I remember how she liked to wore nail polish to school, and some kids made fun of her for doing so. I, however, loved her nails and always asked her to do mine."

"Wow, I didn't know she was trans! When did she transition?"

"8th grade she came out to her parents and was able to start her transition in freshman year of high school. She never got to um-finish her transition."

"Huh. So we basically switched genders." he said, opening the door for me. I looked at him in shock.

"You're trans too?"

"Yeah! Honestly I used to get worried about passing, but even back when I was younger, people thought I looked boyish."

He opened a washing machine's door, and I did the same. We began to load our clothes inside.

"You know, I'm glad our housing team actually puts trans people in dorms with roommates of the gender they identify as, rather than their biological sex."

"I know right! Other universities don't do that, not unless you've gone through the legal process or whatever. Not everyone is able to do that." He sighed, pausing to stretch his back. "People think our country does enough for trans people, but in reality we still suffer. I wanted to join the military, but they banned us from it. Also, some states are moving to not allow people that are LGBTQ+ to adopt. Transition surgery is super expensive."

"I know, it's hard. You'd think that humans would grow beyond caring about what's in someone's pants after centuries of existing, yet here we are." I shut the door and poured in the detergent.

"I'm terrified sometimes to say I'm trans in front of people. Sometimes they murder you on the spot for simply being trans. Oh-I shouldn't have-" My head popped up. Realization dawned on me.

"Wait a second, Josephine wasn't very public about being trans either, not at first. But now she's more comfortable about it and will talk about In fact, she was supposed to be on her way to get her hormone treatment. And our professor apparently was walking with her there."

"You don't think- wait which professor?"

"Dr. Burt Winston, for-"

"Ochem. He's transphobic and really creepy towards girls. As a former girl, I know the struggles."

"You've had him before?"

"Yeah. Toward the end of the semester in spring, he had a short outburst in class after hearing some gender studies professor talking to a psychology professor about the studies regarding the brain composition of trans people. He started throwing papers around yelling that people shouldn't pretend to be the opposite gender."

"Didn't anyone report him?"

He looked at the door to make sure no one was coming in and lowered his voice. "A lot of us did. The university just suspended him for a week and covered up by saying he didn't mean it. From what I've gathered, he's said transphobic things in the past but the University did nothing. A man with 3 PhDs and a former CDC employee, of course they don't want to get rid of him."

"Hmm.. Is it alright if I tell the detectives this? I'll try to keep you anonymous."

"Honestly, I don't mind talking to them about the professor. Do you know if he's a suspect?"

"Yeah, but apparently they don't have enough to arrest him on."

"Are you um, a suspect?"

"Nah, the cameras showed me passed out on a couch on the third floor of the humanities building at the time of murder. You had to call me remember?"

"Right, right." We started to head out the door, when Beck seemed to remember something, and slapped his forehead. "We forgot to turn on the machines."

"Shoot!" We both spun around and hit the buttons to turn on the machines. We then went back out the door. "I'm worried the murderer won't be found.. especially because how corrupt University staff could be."

"Honestly, I feel like it's us students that have to rise up. Some of us are too scared to, but we have to try. Otherwise, shit like this will keep happening." He stopped at his room.

"You're right..."

"I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks for checking up on me!"

"Of course!" Beck smiled and went inside. What he said was right. Enough is enough with the corruption at our university. Students are suffering at the hands of bad professors, and we are helpless until we do something about it.

Justice has to be served.

Not just for Josephine, but the countless others, that were raped, robbed, and murdered. So many cases, shut down.

And as I walked in to my room and spotted Josephine's beautiful bright pink drag wig, I realized what I had to do.

To think, if I hadn't gone and done my laundry with Beck the kind RA, I probably would still be in bed, crying instead of not taking action.