Untouchable [ on going ]

[13 | Death by Flattery ]

"Take a seat," Chloe said, gesturing to the unmade bed beside the computer table. I sat down, taking in the ambience of the room. It was a lot to take in.

"Chloe here runs a website," Gavin explained, once he opened up his email and downloaded the files I've sent him earlier that contained everything I gave to David in the sketchbook. Chloe then pushed him off of the pink swirly chair and Gavin made himself comfortable on the bed beside me before manhandling my body and placing me on his lap.

"And?" I wondered, not really following. I shifted a little so I was more comfortable.

Gavin just smiled, kissing the top of my head. "We'll have her enter the files you sent me in the site," he answered, letting his arms wrap around my waist as Chloe made gagging noises.

I then realized what he meant. "So when David turns in one of Li-my works, he's caught for plagiarism." Gavin nodded, but there was a flaw in the plan. This was what I planned earlier too, but the moment I tried to upload them online, it would give it a date stamp, which wouldn't really help my case if they were uploaded a few days before David's were. He could even argue if he wanted to that I copied his. "But the date it's uploaded is-"

"That's why I'm here," Chloe interrupted, swirling her chair around so she faced us, smiling brilliantly as she pet a cat plush. She pushed the chair slightly, showing us her computer screens, pointing at a screen filled with tables and words I couldn't really comprehend. The other screen was filled with random words. I assumed those were codes as the only ones that made sense were arbitrary words like "stripslashes" and "cookie" and "BURNT BANANAS ERROR."

She explained to me that since she can change the database of her website, she can alter the date and time that it appears on the web. She could make it so that my user was signed up three years ago and the things I uploaded were uploaded two years ago with thousands of people having it already viewed. I wasn't quite sure what she was explaining, but it all seemed fascinating and overwhelmingly difficult.

"And it's done," Chloe announced an hour later, turning to face me and Gavin with a smile. "My payment?" she asked, sweetly, putting her hand out to Gavin.

"You're such a dork," he grumbled, pulling something out of his wallet and placing two tickets for something in her hand with a piece of paper.

"Thanks, Loser," she said with delight, turning to write something on her sticky note before pinning the ticket, piece of paper and sticky note to one of her bulletin boards. It was two tickets to some convention. "Your sacrifice is much appreciated."

"Thanks so much, Chloe," I said sincerely, her bubbly character rubbing off of me. I wasn't entirely sure if she knew why we were doing this or why I wanted the art works and poetry posted but she never really questioned. I doubted that she asked Gavin about it else he would have probably tried to scare her out of town like the woman from Halloween night.

She grinned back at me, her eyes beaming. "No problemo!" she stated cheerfully, patting me on the back. Then, she leaned closer to me, whispering in my ear as she pulled me into a hug: "Between you and me," she whispered, "I'm super glad you're with Gavin. He seems happier since he met you. You're all he talks about."

My jaw dropped in surprise as she pulled away, my gaze at Gavin who was busily logging off his email account. "You're lying."

Chloe giggled, shaking her head. "I'll see you in a few days for the Christmas dinner?"

She didn't provide any more response to me calling her a liar. I smiled at her, realizing that her grin was very contagious. "Yeah." And suddenly, she threw her arms around me and pulled me into another hug.