Next, her music. Nothing to write home about. I recognized some rock songs that I only knew vaguely, but there were plenty of other genres, some music I figured were old if their album covers were anything to go by.
Her tastes were deplorable, and somehow completely fitting.
I even looked through some of her assignments. We were together in one class this semester, but because it was such a big room and she usually showed up early while I ended up arriving late, we hardly met in or out of the lecture room. I hadn't done some of the assignments, but she’d done about half the work we needed to do for the whole semester already, and I didn’t know whether to be impressed or not. I thought for a moment about copying her assignments, then decided it wasn’t worth it. I could do my own after all, and my grades were good. I was just being lazy.
“Have you checked her browsing history?” Logan asked, his voice coming out muffled.
I could hear some kissing noises coming from behind me, so I didn’t bother to look around again.
“There isn’t anything that important looking there, either. I found a bunch of websites that looked like research for her classes, and that’s it.”
“Seriously?” Logan asked, and the noises thankfully stopped.
“Yeah. I don’t think this girl does anything besides study, watch movies and listen to music.”
“Sophia’s always been like that,” Dana said, sounding a little breathless. “She doesn’t do much besides studying; she rarely goes out. When she’s not in classes, she’s walking around campus, in the library, or she’s here.”
I frowned. What about dating though? I refused to think a girl like Sophia had never dated before. I may not like her, but I saw how attractive she was, and if she could keep her mouth shut or change her attitude, I wouldn’t mind dating her myself. So how could it be possible, that in the two years we’d been in this college, she hadn't changed her routine at all?
There was a strangled moaning sound, and I scowled at the computer screen, my hands freezing.
“Logan,” I growled. “I swear if you start fucking behind my back I will kick you out of this room.”
“What! That’s not fucking fair! I didn’t come here to watch you fail at being a hacker! You’re supposed to be good at this shit with all those action movies you watch, aren’t you? There’s hacking in the action movies you like, right?”
I flattened my lips, unable to say anything. I stubbornly went on searching, because I didn’t want to lose this chance, and if I got to annoy Logan in the bargain, then all the better. I’d gotten up to lock the door so no one would be walking in on us, just in case. I did wonder what Sophia did when she was kicked out of the room by the horny couple. I pushed the thought out of my mind in the next moment.
There has got to be something, I thought fiercely to myself. No one could be that boring. She had to be hiding something in her computer.
“What about her emails?” Logan suggested. “Or social media. I still think you’d have better luck going through the browsing history.”
I frowned. “I’m not going to go through her emails.”
“Why not? If you’re worried about her privacy, isn’t it a little late for that now?”
My fingers froze on the keyboard, and I winced. He was right; I had already violated her privacy, but still. What good would I find in her emails? There probably wouldn’t be anything important there…right? I ignored Logan’s last statement and continued.
After another ten minutes of searching, my effort bore fruit. I found it in her browser history, as Logan had said.
“I think I got something,” I said out loud, the excitement obvious in my voice.
“Really? What is it?”
“It’s a dating site. And…it’s exclusive to our campus. How comes I never knew something like this existed?”
“Oh, I think I know a bit about it,” Dana spoke up. “I don’t know who told us about it, but I never bothered to look it up. She asked my opinion about it, and I told her it would be a waste of time. I’ve dated on campus before…”
“Wait, who did you date before?” Logan cut in.
I rolled my eyes.
“Whatever, you two. I’m going to get the info I need and leave you two to your business. Aren’t you happy?”
“Extremely,” Logan said sarcastically.
She didn’t have her password saved to the browser, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she was cautious. Or maybe the website didn’t have that feature. It took a while for me to get the password, then I had everything I needed from her profile. I sent a copy of the page to my cell, then closed out of everything I’d opened. I didn’t shut the computer down, in case she remembered leaving it on, but I did close the top down.
“You guys go ahead and do whatever,” I told the two behind me, waving a hand over my shoulder at them. “Logan, I’ll be back in my room. Feel free to come any time.”
“Does this mean you forgive me for the prank?”
I didn’t answer him, unlocking the door and pulling it open. He’d done something good, and it was lucky for him that I found something that put me in a good mood. But I still had to keep seeing that professor, and things were still going to be awkward for me because of him, so it would take a lot more than just this to get me to forgive and forget.
“Lock the door once I’m gone,” I threw over my shoulder, then closed the door behind me.
I heard Logan curse but just chuckled as I sauntered down the hall, shoving my hands in my pockets. I was even tempted to whistle a tune as I went happily down the stairs. I looked around and thankfully didn’t see Sophia around. She’d be suspicious about why I was in her dorm, and I didn’t want her to know about this little trick.
Not yet, anyway.
I didn’t have a concrete plan yet, but if Sophia was interested in online dating, then I didn’t mind playing with her for a bit.
I hurried back to my dorm. With Logan out of the way it was quiet, and I had enough space to work. If he’d been here, I wouldn’t doubt he’d be looking over my shoulder to see what I was up to, so I could leave that as a surprise for later.
First, I unlocked my cell’s screen and used the info I’d copied from Sophia’s computer to open up the dating site. I read over the rules for the site, then opened up a new profile for myself. I set up the basics, like my name and birthdate, by myself. Then I came up with a simple profile name and picked up the info on my cell again.
“You’re about to meet someone that’s exactly perfect for you, Sophia,” I muttered to myself.
This was the perfect way to get back at her, never mind how simple it was. All I had to do was get her to fall for me online. I wasn’t sure she would be this naïve, but there was no time to find out like the present. She didn’t seem to talk to guys that often, at least I hadn't heard anything on campus, so getting her hooked shouldn’t be that difficult.
Then, after she was hooked, I’d ask for a meeting and watch the look on her face when she realized her online sweetheart was
the same guy she hated.
I grinned to myself just imagining what a beautiful look it would be.
“Now, about the profile,” I murmured in satisfaction.
I took facts about her and turned my online persona into her perfect other half. She wouldn’t think anything was strange at all, would probably just find it a nice coincidence, and I had every intention of using that edge. I picked the music she liked, a few bands that I’d only ever heard of in passing before. I didn’t read books, but I added some of the ones she added as well. I also added her big interests, like my online persona was a big X-Men fan.
Ten minutes later, I had everything filled up. I cross checked the info to be sure they weren’t the same thing. Even if I thought she was naïve, I didn’t think Sophia was particularly stupid. If everything between our profiles were exact, she might start to wonder if I copied off her instead of thinking the profile was her best match. I changed a few of the books around and didn’t put all the ones that were on her profile. I did the same with the music, but didn’t do much about the interests. The only interest I had was hockey, and as far as I knew, Sophia detested all sports players.
After a careful check to make sure everything was perfect I nodded to myself and finished setting up my profile.
The way the dating site worked, a profile would be matched to the closest ranking profile. There was a recommendation list with other profiles that had the most matches with your profiles interests, and sure enough, once I set my own up and a quick match-making session later that took less than a minute, I had a list of profile names to pick from.
Sophia’s was right at the top, and with a grin, I clicked on her profile to send her an invite to chat and get to know each other better.
Wait, Sophia. You’re not going to be so stuck up for long, because you and I are going on a date, whether you like it or not!
Chapter Four
Sophia
I woke up feeling groggy the next morning, and cursed both Logan and Dana out, but only in my mind.