Selena had had enough. She'd emptied the bowl of waffle fries and finished her coffee long before Abigael had finished checking the updates on the watch.
'Just forget it Abi. The watch is clearly a dud, the developers probably had no idea what they were doing and needed to get rid of the thing any way possible. You were just unlucky that's all. Take it into the tech shop tomorrow and you can forget about the whole thing.'
Abigael nodded her head as she swiped her loose hair from her face, sighing in relief at the way Selena always managed to make the biggest scariest things seem so simple.
The two girls walked across the park towards the mall arm in arm and started to laugh at the hilarity of it all. Abigael felt the stress and anxiety disappearing as the only thing she needed to worry about right now was discussing how to best spend their earnings. Or rather, Selena's earnings.
She wasn't cheepskating off her friend, nothing like that. Selena was the daughter of a very well of businessman. Her father was the CEO of a huge conglomerate that owned several well known brands and companies. He was currently worth in the billions and would do anything for his 'darling little girl' including let her splurge his wealth to her heart's content.
Abigael remembered when they were at school, she and Selena would often go out and find the most expensive thing they could and buy it, just to see if they could. Sometimes they even got away with it! But most of the time they would be caught and have the credit card taken from them, though never for very long.
Their school days were long behind them now but the childish fun of shopping till your heart's content had never really left as long as there was money to splurge so the two of them still went out every now and again to 'do damage' as Selena called it. Abigael never felt bad about spending Selena's money, from the first time they had met until now Selena had been and still was the most generous and giving person she knew and didn't hold anything back. Not that she ever did, but if one day she asked for anything, Abigael would do the same.
They rushed through the rotating glass doors of the mall, their heels clicking on the polished tiles as they giggled together, eyeing up the brands on display. They shopped for hours, until the mall became a blur, all they could see was the glitz and glamour of the new fashions and all they could feel was the shopping high.
//
Selena called her a taxi to take her home after their day, it was late at night and they had decided to make up for last night with a few drinks to finish off, which turned into quite a few drinks and a club or two. Laughing raucously the two of them bid their goodbyes and Abigael clambered into the back seat of the taxi. She wasn't drunk enough to forget her address but she could still feel the buzz making her lightheaded and a bit tipsy. She rested her head against the cool glass of the taxi window and stared out at the lights and cityscape flashing past outside.
It was a half hour drive back to her apartment and there was no free wifi, she also didn't want to pay extra for going over her data limit so she started looking around for something to relieve her of her boredom. She soon found herself staring down at the watch.
[I never finished looking through that {Daily} app, I guess it could be good for a laugh] Her attitude towards the watch had completely changed after an afternoon with Selena and a few drinks so she was willing to play around with the watch even if it did annoy her.
Two of the options in {Daily} were still flashing {History} and {Bad Credit History}.
'I thought I looked at {History} already.' she mumbled and tapped the option.
The same information from last time was displayed but she realised that there was a 'next' arrow that she hadn't seen before. She tapped it.
{Goal: GC/BC}
{GC: wave and smile}
{OR}
{BC: glare}
{Goal: 'wave and smile OR glare' Achieved: glare. 1 Credit (Bad) has been added to your account}
[Why is it always the Bad Credits?] Thought Abigael sourly, wondering when this goal had even been added to the app, she certainly didn't remember seeing it before now.
[How is this watch even supposed to measure something like smiling anyway? I get walking or even your heart beat but how do you measure a glare?] Shaking her head she tried to remember if she had ever glared at anyone recently. She had done quite a bit of glaring, she realised, shifting nervously in her seat and raising her hands to her forehead to smooth down the wrinkles that might have grown as a consequence. Most of those glares were directed at the watch to be fair, but she didn't think that that was what set off the 'Goal Achieved'. From the way it was set out, it seemed she needed to make a conscious choice between reacting with a 'wave and smile' or with a 'glare'.
Abigael was silent for a while, a slight frown furrowing her brow while thinking as she watched outside the window. They were passing the plaza with HB Ji-Fi. The massive crowd earlier this morning had already dispersed long ago and she could see through to the shut roller door of the shop.
[The retail assistant!] the thought came to her suddenly [I glared at the retail assistant. Though it wasn't much of a choice, who would choose to smile and wave at a guy who's closing a roller door in your face?] It seemed far fetched and she started thinking that maybe it was the shots she had drunk earlier that were making it seem so likely. She was lost in thought, wrestling with questions and ideas that wouldn't quite form until cab pulled outside her apartment building.
Mimsy the cat was out again and lying outside her neighbours door as Abigael stepped out of the elevator. As usual it hissed at her as she passed.
'You want another kick cat?' she growled quietly, then froze, her foot lifted halfway back in freeze-frame and her eyebrows rising as she realised what she had just said.
'It wasn't the door.' she breathed, 'I never kicked the door. I kicked 'it'.' She stared at Mimsy as the cat made it's getaway behind the pot plant and down the fire escape. Her eyes growing wider as the suspicion that had been niggling away in the back of her mind since the morning slowly formed into a clear question for the first time.
'How did the watch know I would have to make that choice?'