User Unfriendly

“Do you think we can trust her?” Becca asks you.

With one question, Becca brings back all the anxiety you were feeling. You and the others can safely assume that it was your sister Lainey who met up with Courtney at the library. Becca basically told you that Lainey’s working for Mr. Hoffman to spy on you and your group. With Courtney’s fear and Lainey’s mysterious resentment against you and your family, Becca’s not wrong to question whether Courtney’s not playing for that side now too.

“Hey, Love Coach!” Courtney shouts to grab your attention, and you see that she’s actually pointing at you.

You’re not sure if the anxiety’s clear on your face, but Courtney’s shit eating grin upon seeing your reaction isn’t a welcome sight.

“Your turn.”

A trip to Becca and Viv’s shared office later…

“Jesus Christ. Can you not keep it in your pants?” Courtney asks you in disgust.

“What?” You ask in confusion, and Courtney immediately points to the stockings that Becca just threw on her desk after removing them. You grow a shade redder out of embarrassment for not having any foresight to at least throw them in the trash after Becca took them off.

“You really are a fucking pussy.” Courtney calls you out. “So what if you fucked in here? A room’s a room.” Courtney tells you.

“What’s this about, Courtney?” You ask, ignoring her comment after realizing that Courtney just made that observation to mess with you.

“No. I want none of that.” Courtney replies confusingly. “You don’t get to pretend you don’t know what this is about.” Courtney tells you, before taking out her phone and showing you the screen.

It’s no surprise to you that this is what she wants to talk about. It’s not a surprise either that she asked to speak with you privately, as to not reveal yours and hers secret to those who might not know it.

“You can’t tell me you don’t see this shit like Brooke.” Courtney confronts you. You know exactly what she’s talking about, but you also can’t help yourself to point out a tiny detail that Courtney missed.

“Your screen’s off, Courtney.” You tell her.

“Bullshit! I know you can see the app!” Courtney tells you in frustration.

“No! I mean your phone screen’s literally off. Unlock it first and then show me.” You tell her in more detail. Courtney turns her phone’s screen towards her and realizes that the screen actually isn’t showing anything.

“Oh.” Courtney says in reaction to her mistake, before fiddling with it and pointing the screen back at you.

“That’s still just your home screen, Courtney.” You point out to her in exasperation, thinking she’s still messing with you.

“Why are you lying!? I already know you have it too!” Courtney shouts back at you.

“And I know you do too!” You shout back. “That’s why I don’t get why you have to keep messing with me!” You add in agitation, and this takes Courtney by surprise. She flips her phone to face you again, and her face curls up in fury.

“It’s fucking open already!” Courtney shouts back as she shoves her phone closer to your face.

“No! It’s not!” You point out, and Courtney actually shoves you in anger, forcing you to hit the door behind you.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to make this difficult when all I’m trying to do is bury the hatchet!” Courtney shouts after shoving you.

“What are you angry at me for!? You’re the one who can’t do something as simple as opening their app!” You fight back.

“Wait, you really can’t see it?” Courtney suddenly asks, and it dawns on you that you never even considered that a possibility. You take out your phone, open the app, and try to show it to her too.

“What do you see?” You ask her.

“Your lock screen.” Courtney answers.

As soon as she does, both your phones chime in with notifications, forcing you both to check your phones.

‘The Affection Multiplier has detected you are trying to show your gift to another user. As a safety measure, this is automatically prevented. There are possible dangers to this course of action. It is highly advised NOT to proceed.’

‘Would you still like to continue?’

‘Y/N’

“Huh.” You hear Courtney say in reaction.

“Did you get the same message?” You ask her.

“About it not being highly advised to show you the app?” Courtney checks.

“Yeah. That one.” You confirm, and it basically defeats the purpose of showing each other’s apps when this simultaneous notification pretty much confirms it.

“I guess it’s not just your profile that’s blocked from being seen by other users. The entire app is blocked too.” You surmise.

“Wait, what do you mean my profile’s blocked?” Courtney asks you.

“Try to check my profile. That’ll pretty much answer it.” You instruct her, and Courtney fiddles with her phone again before her eyes widen.

“So I can’t see your scores!?” Courtney asks in reaction.

“And I can’t see yours.” You inform her, and Courtney takes a moment to consider this newfound information, before tilting her head and nodding.

“It makes sense when you think about it.” Courtney says in reaction.

“Is this really the first time you’ve checked my profile?” You ask her in disbelief.

“Oh, don’t give me that. Of course I tried. But I couldn’t even find your name on this before!” Courtney says defensively. You realize that this is the first time you and Courtney have talked since she got the app, so it does make sense why she couldn’t find your profile before tonight.

“You’re taking this in a whole lot better than I thought you would.” You observe. Despite her initial reaction, which you can only attribute to her thinking you were lying, she’s a lot calmer about talking about the app than how Brooke described her previous reaction. Hell, she ran away from Brooke just at the thought of you having the app. Now, she’s conversing with you about it like she wasn’t afraid of you or calling you dangerous before.

“I am curious what would happen if we let each other see our apps though.” Courtney says, completely ignoring your comment

Not a single part of you is curious of the ramifications of showing your app to another user; let alone Courtney, who you’re not even sure is even genuinely here to make amends or has been convinced by Lainey to be another agent in the Hoffman family’s bullshit power grabbing games.

“What’s the worst that could happen if we decide to show each other our apps?” Courtney asks.

“How the hell should I know?” You answer back.

“Uhhh~, lemme think, because you’ve had this thing longer than I have!?” Courtney retorts, not liking your answer.

“And you’re the only other user I know! So this is a first for me too!” You point out, and Courtney just groans in frustration.

…

“I bet she’d know.” Courtney fires back. It was clearly a jab at you for not knowing, but you’re not sure why at first. And then the implication hits you. Courtney can really only be referring to one other person with that — the person that met her at the library.

“Who would know?” You ask Courtney seriously, taking her by surprise. “Who would know, Courtney?” You repeat your question, your synapses firing with worry.

“Answer me!” You shout at her, gripping her by her shoulders and shaking her to **** an answer. Courtney’s initial shock at your seriousness turns into arrogance once she realizes the real reason behind your reaction.

“You don’t know.” Courtney says with a shit eating grin.

“You told her about your app!?” You ask her in disbelief, and without thinking, pick her up off the ground. This gets an amused smile from Courtney’s, before she quickly bursts out laughing in your face.

“How about you take your own advice?” Courtney smugly asks you.

“Check her profile, pussy.”