After Roommate Bound Me to Balance-Discount System, I Bankrupted Her

When I went to pay my tuition, the card showed a balance of fifty dollars.

But my mom had just transferred me ten thousand for tuition yesterday.

I quickly asked her to send another ten thousand. The moment it landed, the balance refreshed and dropped right back to fifty.

Meanwhile my roommate, the one on financial aid, had suddenly draped herself in designer labels, claiming her parents had gotten rich through honest hard work.

Then my mom transferred the money one more time.

The instant it vanished from my card, I saw a deposit alert light up on her phone.

I looked at the balance, back to fifty again, and gave a soft little laugh.

Honest hard work, huh? All of it built on stealing from me?

Then I'd make her cough it back up. Double.

Staring at that fifty-dollar balance, I broke into a sweat.

Beside me, my roommate Virginia Dickerson sniped away in that sugary, poisonous tone of hers.

"I heard you're keeping some male escort at a club. You didn't hand him all your tuition, did you?"

"Guys like that are filthy. Aren't you scared of catching something? The rest of us sharing this dorm with you sure are."

I shoved her off me. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Virginia's voice went all innocent. "Can't even own up to your own choices? I'm just looking out for you here!"

"Otherwise, go on, tell me where your money went. Your family's loaded. There's no way they wouldn't cover your tuition."

I couldn't waste another second on her. I turned and ran for the bank.

"Hi, my mom just transferred me two payments, and both of them disappeared out of nowhere!"

Every person waiting at the counter turned wary.

"I've heard banks skim money off accounts. This isn't actually true, is it?"

The lobby manager went pale and quickly steered me over to the VIP window.

"Let's help this young lady figure out what happened first."

She had the teller start on my case while turning back to soothe the crowd.

"Everything we do here follows regulation, everyone, please don't worry"

The teller took my card and tapped at the keyboard.

A record of transactions printed out.

"Two deposits of ten thousand each. As soon as they landed, they were transferred straight to an overseas account. The system shows it was done by the account holder through mobile banking."

"Young lady, did you fall for some kind of scam?"

I took the statement and studied it closely.

"I never made either of these transfers. Could something be wrong with my card?"

The bank manager glanced at the teller's screen, then hardened her face at me.

"Every one of these was done by you. There's nothing wrong with the card."

"If you got scammed, you tell your family. You don't come here asking the bank to lie for you."

Hearing the manager, the people around me started shaking their heads too.

"Kids these days. All they know how to do is bleed their parents dry."

"The way she came running in, I honestly thought she'd lost her money. Turns out it's all an act."

I looked at the two strange transfers on the statement, and Virginia's face rose up in front of me.

My money vanished, and out of nowhere she was spreading filth about me, like she'd known all along exactly what was going to happen.

Then I thought about that coat she'd been wearing. Michael Kors. Over three thousand dollars.

Three thousand-plus was half a year of her parents' government assistance. How could she bring herself to buy a coat that expensive?

The suspicion took root in me.

I called my mother. "Mom, don't send me any more money, either of you. Something's wrong with my card."

She sounded anxious. "Can't the bank trace it? Should we call the police?"

The police? The bank records showed I'd made the transfers myself.

And even if it was a scam, where were the scammer's call logs? The chat history?

I had nothing.

If anything, Virginia was the one real lead I had, and I couldn't tip her off.

So I reassured her. "I've got a thread to follow. Leave it to me for now."

Back in the dorm, another Coach bag had appeared on Virginia's bed.

Our roommate Lily was looking at her, worried. "You're spending this muchwhat are you going to do when you can't afford to eat?"

Virginia glanced up, saw me, and gave a smug little smile.

"I'll be fine. My family's got money now. I won't need financial aid anymore."

"Evelyn's the one to worry about. You're down to fifty dollars on your card. How come your parents won't wire you anything more?"

"Don't tell me they found out you were spending it all on male escorts and cut you off?"

I gave her a cold look.

"How do you know whether my parents have sent me more money or not?"

"And why are you more eager for my mom to transfer money than I am?"

Virginia flew into a temper.

"I was just being nice, worried you'd go hungry! Why are you being so snide?"

Lily frowned at me too. "Evelyn, what's got you throwing a fit?"

"Are you just sore that Virginia's family came into money? Can't stand to see someone else do well?"

I was about to answer when my phone chimed with a text.

My scholarship had landed.

I quickly opened my banking app.

Balance: ten thousand and fifty dollars.

The instant I read the number, the balance refreshed and dropped right back to fifty.

Almost at the same moment, Virginia's phone chimed.

I was standing right beside her bed, and I caught it at a glance: "A deposit has been made to your card ending in 3003."

Guilt flashed across her face and she moved to lock the screen. I clamped my hand over hers.

"Let me see it."

She jabbed the lock button on the side.

"Are you sick, Evelyn? Why on earth would I let you see my phone?"

"This is snooping through my private stuff!"

My voice went cold. "My scholarship vanishes the second it lands, and at the exact same moment your phone gets a deposit alert."

"The scholarship's ten thousand. How much just came into your account? Why won't you let me look?"

Virginia's eyes reddened at once.

"You blew through your own money and now you want to pin it on me?"

"Yes, that was a deposit alert on my phone just now. It's allowance from my parents. Why should I have to show you?"

"So the amounts matching means I stole from you? Go on, tell mehow exactly did I steal it?"

Lily and the others were furious too.

"Evelyn, don't push it. The phone's in your hand the whole time, and Virginia's sitting right next to me. How could she steal your money?"

"If you've got the guts, go squeeze the money out of your male models. Don't come throwing your weight around in the dorm."

I watched Virginia's face.

Her eyes were rimmed red, but the corners of her mouth were fighting not to curl up.

I was a hundred percent sure now. She was behind it.

But like Lily said, the phone was in my own hand.

When the money hit my account, Virginia was sitting on her bed doing nothing at all.

So how had she done it?

I stepped out of the dorm for some air, hoping it would clear my head.

What exactly had Virginia pulled to keep my balance locked at fifty?

Then a thought came to me.

It couldn't go over fifty. But what if my balance dropped below fifty?

I went to the school cafeteria and loaded twenty onto my meal card.

The balance jumped to thirty.

A second later, the screen flickered.

The balance was back to fifty.

The hand holding my phone started to shake with excitement.

So my bank balance could only sit at fifty. Anything over vanished, and anything under got topped back up.

If the money that disappeared went to Virginia, then this money that came backwasn't it coming from her too?

Back in the dorm, Virginia waved her phone at me.

"Worried you couldn't afford to eat, so I just sent you twenty."

I looked at her and gave a small smile.

"Well, thank you so much for that."

Virginia knew my card was short by twenty.

Which meant the money that came back really did come from Virginia.

She was afraid I'd catch on to the loophole, so she pretended she'd transferred me money.

But she forgot that a transfer leaves a record, and there was nothing on my end.

I didn't call her out.

A plan was starting to take shape in my head.

Our class had always had a custom. Whoever got the scholarship had to treat everyone to a meal.

I was going to make good use of this one.

Sure enough, the moment I walked into the classroom with my books, our class president called out to me:

"Evelyn, the scholarship came through, right?"

I nodded. "It did. Ten thousand."

The class started ribbing me the way they always did. "Treat us this weekend, top scholar!"

Virginia rolled her eyes in contempt.

"You're counting on her? She hasn't even paid her tuition."

"The scholarship just landed and she already handed it over to her male models."

I didn't explain. I just waved my phone.

"It's only a dinner. I can ask my mom for the money."

I dialed the number.

"Mom, I'm treating my classmates on Saturday. Send me some money."

"Don't send it now, though. There's still something wrong with my bank card. I'll ask you for it when it's time to pay that day."

I hung up and announced it to the room.

"My mom says to order whatever we want. However much it comes to, she'll send me the money."

Virginia's eyes lit up in an instant.

She glanced sideways, then leaned in and grabbed my hand.

"Evelyn, your family's so well off. Why don't you show us all a good time for once?"

"I hear that Imperial Grand place is really high-end. Can't you ask your mom to send you a little extra and treat us all to a dinner there?"

The rest of the class started to waver.

"That's a bit much. Imperial Grand runs two thousand a head. Thirty of us, that's sixty grand minimum."

"And Evelyn's scholarship was only ten thousand"

I met Virginia's eyes and nodded yes.

"It's fine. Imperial Grand it is. I could use a treat myself for once."

The others laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.

"You're spending your mom's money. How's that you getting a treat?"

"We're the ones getting the treat off you!"

I shrugged and gave Virginia a long look.

"Doesn't matter whose money it is. Call it borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha."

That weekend, I booked the double-table private room at Imperial Grand.

One expensive dish after another came out onto the table.

Virginia couldn't hide the excitement in her eyes.

Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Virginia picked up a napkin and wiped her mouth.

"Evelyn, hurry up and have your mom send the money over."

I waved the server over.

"No rush. Let's see what it comes to first."

The server came over with the card reader.

"Ma'am, your total is eighty-six thousand three hundred. With the rounding discount, that's eighty-six thousand even."

A ripple of gasps ran around the table.

"Eighty-six grand. God, my mom doesn't even make eighty grand in a whole year."

"Is this did we go too far? Evelyn, is your mom going to yell at you?"

Virginia's eyes glittered with greed, and she couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from lifting.

"Evelyn's family is so wealthy. Why would they nitpick over something like this?"

"Oh, right, Evelyn, didn't you say your card has issues sometimes? I really think you should have your mom send extra, just so nothing goes wrong."

I smiled and nodded. "Sure. How about I have my mom send sixteen thousand?"

At the word "sixteen thousand," the muscles in Virginia's face started to twitch.

Under Virginia's expectant gaze, I slipped my phone back into my pocket.

Her expression went blank for a second, then she pushed me again.

"What are you doing? Hurry up and call for the money. The server's still waiting to close out the bill!"

I took my bank card out of my bag.

"Just messing with you. No need to ask my mom for money. We'll settle it straight off my card."

Virginia snorted a laugh. "You've only got fifty on that card, haven't you? This dinner's eighty-six grand. Your little bit wouldn't even cover the loose change. How are you going to pay?"

I lowered my voice, playing it up as a mystery.

"Here's what you don't know. This card of mine is amazing. It's like Doraemon's pocket."

"The balance really is only fifty, that's true. But every time I spend money, it tops me right back up to fifty."

I handed the card to the server. "I'll have to trouble you, though. It only lets me charge fifty at a time, so you'll have to swipe it a bunch of times."

Puzzled, the server took my card and entered fifty on the reader.

The reader gave a "beep" of confirmation. The charge went through.

The server was about to swipe a second time when Virginia's face changed completely. She lunged over and slammed her hand down on the card reader.

"No!"