"He's into you," Fiona called from the kitchen.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "No, he's not," I called back as I went to her. I walked in the kitchen and opened the fridge.

"He totally is! How often does he ask to do things by yourselves?" Fiona asked, setting down her fork. She was gearing up for a long discussion.

A discussion I didn't want to have. "Regularly. Now, I need to go start researching."

She noticed something in my voice, I guess, because she asked, "I take it things didn't go well?"

I pulled out a salad from Wendy's and turned to her. "Not really. We're redoing the debate and we told people it would be better this time around." I pulled a drawer open and took out a fork. "I don't like people expecting things of me," I said quietly, not turning around. I stared at the fork in my hand. It was shiny and I could just make out my distorted reflection in it.

I heard the sound of Fiona getting off of her stool and walking over. She turned me a little and gave me a hug. It wasn't like the one Kyle gave me - this time, I hugged her back as the gesture wasn't unusual. "Oh, Liz," she said. "No one's expecting anything you can't deliver on, okay? They're expecting your normal standard, nothing more."

Her words calmed me down. I went back over what Kyle and I had promised everyone: another debate on the topic that measured up to our standards. Nothing more, nothing less. I nodded and pulled back. "Okay."

---

I popped the lid off of my salad and eyed it. As much as I actually did like salads and stuff, I was getting super tired of only having healthy foods in the house. It'd only been a week, but I would have killed for a bag of chips and a Dr. Pepper at this point.

With a sigh, I opened the dressing and emptied the whole packet onto the salad. I sat it on my bed and grabbed my laptop, grabbing my headset as an after-thought. Once I was fully settled in with my dinner, I began researching. And by researching, I mean I opened a private browser and typed 'Vitality is bad' in the search bar.

Maybe that wasn't the best way to search, but that's how all of my searches start off.

Google pulled up several results and I began scrolling. Most of it was exactly what I'd seen last time: a couple of people crying fraud after their accounts were allegedly hacked and information stolen, and a lawsuit Vitality lost and swept under the rug where the woman was claiming that her code was stolen which violated her copyrights on it. Vitality simply said that she shouldn't have put it online as creative commons. I'd checked it out, and as far as I could tell, it had been listed as that, though I had no idea why she would've won if that had truly been the case.

With a sigh I made a note of it. I scrolled down the page, clicked to the next one, and stopped when I saw something that caught my eye: How does Vitality measure up? I clicked on it.

A blog opened. It opened to a page that was comparing Vitality as a whole to when it was all separate websites. I scrolled down the page. She said she found the old method harder since all of her friends weren't on the same website and had their preferences as to what they liked in a website and didn't. Right as I was beginning to wonder why this popped up since she obviously liked Vitality I got to this part:

'Do I find Vitality convenient? Yes, I do, but when do we value others' opinions and feelings and stop trying to seek our own convenience? My friends were disappointed after the merger was announced. They no longer had any choice but to now use the functions of Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Tinder when all they had any use for was Snapchat and Instagram. They never liked those websites when I allowed them to try my accounts. Yet, now they have to use them all to use the one function. Why can't we choose which parts of Vitality we want?'

She had a point. A very valid point. I never liked Snapchat or Instagram, but I thrived on Twitter and YouTube. Now that I thought about it, I wasn't very happy, either, but I got over it. I mean, I left those parts of Vitality alone - there was no reason for me to use them.

I went to her home page. She described it as 'a peek behind the curtain' and every post seemed to be about something Vitality had done wrong. I frowned, but I couldn't stop my curiosity from making me search through her website.

One post was about that lost case and she was voicing the same questions I had.

'Vitality lost it's court case this week - not that it actually made the news. Sally said she'd posted it on a website to ask someone to test her code in a specific way, not as creative commons. She said her copyrights were infringed and the court agreed, awarding her over a hundred thousand dollars and the removal of her code from Vitality's website. Vitality's response? She'd uploaded it as creative commons and a coder found it and deemed it fit for use with his block of code, so the one she really should be suing is the person who took it, not their entity.

Really? If it was creative commons, shouldn't she have lost the case? What about the blog she maintains about coding? She said she was offered cash upfront for not going through with the lawsuit. Don't believe me? Here's the link to her post.'

I opened the link in another tab and checked it out. She was right. I closed the new tab and read the rest of the post.

'And what about the code? Being someone who knows people that have expertise in these things, I found out that the code was a patch. It wasn't built as one, but parts of it could be used as one in part of Vitality's coding. She later posted on her blog that Vitality bought the piece of code from her. I have no idea why she'd sell anything to that company, especially after they tried to steal it.'

I scrolled all the way down the page, getting ready to report this person to Vitality, when my eye caught on something.

I know that what's at the bottom of a page differs from website to website, and this probably wasn't any different, but it looked just a little suspicious for it to have a question mark at the end of privacy policy. I clicked it and found myself on a new website. It was what looked like a blank page for messaging, but then a single line of text appeared on the page.

T: Who are you?

I sat up a little straighter. What? I put L in the username box and typed out a message.

L: Who are you?

I chewed on my lip as I waited for a response.

T: I guess we could go back and forth all day like this.
T: You first.

L: Liza.

T: Nice to 'meet' you. Now, tell me: why are you here?

L: Where is 'here'?

T: You're not on my blog anymore, if that's what you're asking.

L: It's not, since I figured as much. Better question: why are you talking to me?

T: Just curious as to why you'd be interested in my blog.

L: I'm not. I was investigating it after I found it.

T: Why were you looking for it if you're not interested in uncovering Vitality?

L: Because I was doing research.

T: Wait. Are you Liza Mercy? From He Said She Said?

L: What if I am?

T: My brother loves watching you.

L: Um, cool? Do you want me to give him a shout-out or something? Because I can do that.

T: NO
T: I mean, you don't have to.
T: Why are you still talking to me if you're only researching?

Good question. I had to think about that one.

L: Because I thought maybe I could ask you some questions.

T: Like what? I may not answer you, you know.
T: At least, not honestly. How would you know the difference?

L: Fair enough.
L: First, how did you know the girl that sued Vitality?

T: She was a hacker, I know hackers. Next.

L: What do you mean, you know hackers?

T: Just that: I know hackers. Next.

L: Fine.

I tapped out a slow rhythm as I thought out how to ask my burning question.

T: Are you still there?
T: If you're not, I'm leaving this chat.

L: I'm here, just thinking.

T: Think faster.

L: How did you know what the code she sold was?

T: Because I do.

L: But how?

T: Next.

L: You didn't answer me.

T: Next.
T: Question.

L: Fine. You won't tell me how you got it, so maybe you'll tell me how you know it fit into the source code for Vitality.

T: I told you. I know hackers who know other things. End of story. Wow. Great talk. Let's do it again some day.

L: Why do you hate Vitality?

Nothing. For a while. Right as I was about to click off the page, she responded.

T: Are you serious about this, or are you fishing for someone?

L: I'm serious. It seems like something happened to make you this upset with them.

T: Like you'd care.

L: I would. I do. I want both sides to this story.
L: I debate with Kyle multiple times a week. Why wouldn't I want to know both sides and give a fair decision?

T: I hope you're serious about this.

Surprisingly enough, I was. I was only trying to get her to tell me, but the more I thought about my words, the more truth I found in them. I wanted to make a balanced decision on whether or not I took her side, and the only way to do that was to hear her story.

L: I am.

T: Are you sure?

L: Yes.

T: I'll link you to an app and I want you to download it on your laptop. I made it, and it has a chat function where we can share pictures and other information as we want, okay?

L: Okay.

She sent me a link and I followed it. It was for an app called App-Thetic. I downloaded it quickly and opened it. The layout and design was very simple and straight-forward.

L: Now what?

She walked me through some simple steps to set up an account and then sent me the first message.

T: There we go! You should be good now.

L: I am, thanks.

T: Log on here tomorrow about five and we'll talk about this stuff then. Oh, and the messages delete themselves every time the window closes. Isn't that cool?

That was one way to describe it.

L: Yeah. Hey, I may not be here at five tomorrow. Is seven okay?

T: Sure, but why so late?

L: Plans. Ttyl.

I exited the app and finished my salad. My notepad's page was full, and now it looked like I may be filling a second page the next day. My fans wanted a better debate? They were going to get a better debate.

My laptop was starting to get warm, so I got up and moved it to my desk. I carried my trash out of my room, put it in the can in the kitchen, and got back to my room in time to see a window close on the screen. I froze. What had opened? More importantly, how?

I walked over to it and laid a hand on the keyboard. Cool. I opened my browser and it loaded up like it always did. I closed it and sat back, staring at it. Had something even been open? Or was my eyes messing with me? It'd been a long day, but surely I wasn't that tired...

Still unsure, I closed my laptop and went to bed.

---

A/N: This story will be updated every Tuesday. Starting on Friday, I'll be uploading chapters for a compilation work every Friday. My main reason for only uploading this story once a week for now is because it's coming along a little slower than usual, mainly because I want to make sure you're getting my best, not something hurried.

Should I switch the days, so that this story is updated every Friday and my other every Tuesday?