You Had Me at "I Hate You"

A week later.

God? Kill me.

I had been living with Lincoln Fletcher for one week, and I was already contemplating putting poison in his drink.

Every day I woke up at around ten, the lovely sight of Linc sprawled out, drooling on his bed greeting me. I took a shower, and by the time I was out, Linc was up and watching early morning cartoons.

I made myself breakfast, finished drying my hair and what-not, and then was out the door by eleven. All of this without speaking a single word to Linc.

Then it was off to work at The Gutter Press, the awful tabloid that I wrote for. Honestly, the only thing that got me through the day was Aiden. He was an amazing boy with white-blonde hair who worked in the same department as I did. Really, we spent more time flirting than working...

I came home at around five, just in time to eat a surprisingly good meal, cooked by Jesse. After this, Jesse and Linc would gather around the computer, snickering and suspiciously closing whatever window they'd brought up whenever I came close.

I figured they were looking at porn, but boy, was I wrong.

One day, I came home, dumped my purse by the door, and flipped out. The computer, which was set up on a small desk across the room, was unoccupied.

And they'd left up the window they'd been using.

I dashed over and peered at the screen...

And saw something that made me raise an eyebrow in confusion.

A bank account page, showing a transaction of one dollar into an unnamed account.

-_-_-_-_-

Jesse emerged from the bathroom.

"What is this?" I mused, pointing at the computer screen.

Jesse went pale.

"I... I can explain!"
"You better!" I shouted.

Why was he acting so weird? This must be a bigger deal than I thought...

"Please don't be angry," he pleaded.
"Angry?" I asked. "Why would I be angry?"

"Because you found out about our scam..." he trailed off.

He hadn't realized that I didn't know what he was doing.

"Oh! I... Uh... Never mind..."
"No!" I walked over to him and jabbed a finger in his face. "You said scam!"
"Um... No! No... I never said-"
"Don't lie to me!" I interrupted. "Tell me what you've done!"

He caved. "Okay... But Linc's not going to be very happy about this..."

He explained how Linc had created a computer virus.
"Linc? As in Lincoln Fletcher? Our Lincoln Fletcher? He created a virus?"
Jesse shrugged. "The guy's smart. You've got to give him a chance..."
"Okay, we're not here to defend Linc. Continue," I ordered.

He continued to explain that the virus wouldn't show up on your computer unless you've used an online banking service. If you have, then it worms it's way into your computer's history, and retrieves your bank account number... and basically all your private information.

Then, the virus subtracts one cent from your most recent transaction, and transfers it into an unnamed account... That can be accessed by Linc and Jesse.

"So..." I squeaked. "Basically... You're stealing a penny from millions of people... every day?"
He nodded, and gulped, knowing what question I was going to ask next.

"So... How much have you made?"
He mumbled something unintelligible.
"What was that?"
"One hundred..."
I raised an eyebrow.
"That is... One hundred thousand..."
"DOLLARS?!"
"Yes!"

An excited laugh bubbled up in his throat.
My eyes widened with shock...

"But... Jesse... That's... That's illegal!"
He stopped laughing. "I know... Violet... You won't tell anyone what we're doing... Will you?"

I paused.

"No! Of course not! You guys are my... Well, you're my friend, and Linc is my... roommate. I wouldn't do that to you."
He sighed in relief.
"But... Jesse... I want you to stop."

He nodded. "I know. We were going to stop after $50,000, but... We kind of got carried away. Linc and I agreed to destroy the virus tonight. All the money is going towards my college fund, and the rent for the apartment."

I chuckled. "So it'll last... What? A couple months?"
"Well... Could you do me a favor... And not tell Linc that you know about the virus?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. "He might not be too happy."

"What?" a voice shouted from the doorway. It was Linc, carrying a large bag of groceries. "YOU TOLD HER?!"

Jesse froze. "She just found out! You left up the bank account page!"
"But you told her!"
"I..."

"Oh, calm down!" I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to tell anyone!"
Linc sighed and dumped the groceries on the counter in the kitchen.

"It's nice to know how much I can trust you, Jesse!" he called sarcastically.
Jesse shook his head and snorted in laughter.

I shot him a "Linc-is-so-dumb" look and headed in to my room