6 Chapter 6: Stranger

1-450-XXX-XXXX, what was the point of throwing her number away if I could find it with just a few clicks on my computer? Ugh, I was so pathetic. No good could come out of calling her. Maybe I should text her to at least say I did not want to stay in touch. No, it would just be weird. It had already been a week since we saw each other to study and yet, I was still thinking about her. There was only one way to get her off my mind: hacking. Which was good, because I had a lot of work to do. Root_Omega had sent us the scans a few days ago and I was still trying to go through all the data with GuyF4k3. He was the only member of The Root that I really trusted. He was the one who had recruited me and also the only one I would sometime call to work on a hack. We were using a voice modification software, obviously, but it was a different level of trust than just chatting on TOR. We even had settled up our own IP call server with only two numbers: 23 and 43. I called 43 on my computer. GuyF4k3 picked up a few minutes later.

-Sup.

The way he talked made me think he was some kind of super chill dude. Of course, the voice sounded like a robot from a crappy sci-fi, but the words he used were always making it look like he did not care about a lot of things.

-Hey, not much, I answered, I was thinking we could try to test which of their open ports were vulnerable.

My voice sounded like Merlin, well it was supposed to... In reality, it sounded like an old British man was trying to imitate a French accent while choking on a potato and talking through a speakerphone. Sound effects never were my strong suit.

-Sure thing man. Hey, is everything OK? You sound like you're dying.

He would always make that joke just to be an ass. I did not even dignify his question with an answer.

-No, but seriously dude, he said, you OK? I mean, you never work on the same hack two days in a row.

He was right, I always thought at least 24 hours were needed to reflect on your work and decided what needed to be added, changed or improved. So since we already worked on the scan yesterday he knew something was off.

-Yeah, well I just need to change my mind a little, so I might as well be productive, I said. Besides, it's mostly grunt work so there's not much reflection to make.

-Change your mind? Do I smell trouble in paradise?

There was no point in telling him what was troubling me since his insight was not going to affect my decision, but it would make the long process of testing ports a lot less boring.

-Yeah, you could say that, I answered. Someone managed to break into my fortress of isolation.

I realized that apart from him, there was nobody on this earth I could share my problems with. I guess I really was a total introvert.

-So you met a girl.

Touché, I thought.

-Well, I wouldn't say it like that really... I started.

-Dude, just say it.

There was no point in denying, he already was onto me.

-Yeah, I met a girl.

-And let me guess, he said, it was going smoothly, then your trust issues came knocking so you decided you'd stop talking to her and now you can't stop thinking about her, so here you are, hacking the FBI.

Damn, he was good. Well, he was our social engineer expert after all. Besides, he knew me pretty well, I even considered him as my only friend.

-In a nutshell, yeah. But really, the reason I can't stop thinking about her is that she told me I was attractive. I can't figure out why she would say that to me.

Maybe he had an answer to this one, it would put an end to a series of bad migraines.

-Maybe it's because she does find you attractive, he said, dude, chillax, not everyone has a secret agenda. I mean you're not a hermit, you shouldn't be surprised someone fell for you, it was bound to happen.

I guess he was right, as usual. Maybe she was just being blunt and honest. We kept talking about Naomi for a while (though I never told him her name) when he suddenly said:

-Dude, I think you might have feelings for her, I've never heard you talk about an actual human being for this long before.

I did not expect that. I knew I was not in love, but maybe I liked her more than I cared to admit.

-Nah man, it's just... she reminds me of someone...

I never talked about her to GuyF4k3. I never talked about her to anyone, except that stupid shrink I was forced to see.

-Oh... She reminds you of your ex.

That one he got wrong, I had no ex. I could not blame him though, there was no way he could have guessed the truth.

-No, that ain't it... I'd rather not talk about it, to be honest.

-Sure thing brother. Well, on a different note, I think I found something, I'm sending it to you.

I was relieved he did not insist on finding out more about her. I looked at the vulnerability, it would be hard, but doable. I started drafting an exploit.

-So, what are you gonna do? He asked.

-I'm not sure yet, I think I'm going to send them an exploit that will add a line for the next system update. That way I won't need to get their password, they'll enter it for their system update and it'll download my backdoor with the whole thing. Of course, I'll have to hide the backdoor within a legit file, but with the...

-Dude, he said stopping me, that's super smart and all, but I was talking about that girl. Are you gonna talk to her again?

Of course, he was talking about Naomi, I have been complaining about my problems for that past hour, he wanted to know if it changed anything.

-I don't know, I answered, I think I'm going to stick to being an introvert. Besides too busy with The Root and college to go out on dates and stuff.

That was I lie. I was not busy with school because I was a genius and thus I did not need to study. I was not busy with The Root because I had almost finished my part of the operation. And finally, I was not even busy with a job or anything, because the money I got from last year's hack combined with my scholarship was enough to pay for all my stuff.

-Sure, he said with doubt, you do what you think is best... but maybe for once you should give luuuve a try, might do you some good.

He was right, but I was not going to admit it. We spent the next 45 minutes in silence, reflecting on his wise words and working on the exploit.

-I think we're all done, I said, now all that's left to do is to wait for them to update their system and we're good to go.

I sent the exploit through a sneaky packet embed to a terrorist information email. Nice and easy.

-You got it, bro, call me when we're in, shouldn't take more than a week.

He disconnected. I went to sleep, I had school tomorrow.

I saw Naomi in the hallway, she was with a bunch of her friends. She looked at me and started walking in my direction. I took a left and lost her in the crowd. That was the third time we crossed path today. She did not even have any classes, her teacher cancelled it, I had looked it up this morning. Then again, she was popular, maybe she was just hanging out with her friends. I went to the library, the one place she never goes. She came in a few minutes after me, alone. I was trapped in my only safe haven. She came right in front of me and eye-locked me. Never in my entire life has someone starred me this intensively. And believe me, I've been starred in the eye pretty often, they're purple. She took a piece of paper and handed it to me.

-Here's my number, asshole, she said, just in case you lost it.

Then she turned around and left without giving me the chance to answer anything. I looked at the paper, it was the same one I threw away about a week ago. She must have picked it up the next day on her way to school. Talk about bad luck, god I was so stupid. And god she was perseverant. All the way back home I was thinking about whether I should text her or not. She did call me an asshole, but I deserved it. I remembered what GuyF4k3 had told me. I needed a bit of "luuuve", it was time I let someone else than her get close to me. I took out my phone, deleted my folder on Naomi Wild and texted her:

D: Hey stranger.