Chapter One: Truth or Dare
===========================
Annabelle had graduated college three years ago and lived alone ever since. She has been single for over two years and was very lonely. It seemed like no matter what she did she just couldn't find someone to date. She had grown to dread going home for the holidays to hear that inevitable question, "You meet a boy yet?"
But even more than she was lonely, she was just bored. A 9-5 office job working for some of the most boring men on the planet whose sense of humor is limited to tearing down women and football. Annabelle just needed something- anything- in her life that could add a little spark.
For her 25th birthday, Annabelle's best friend, Riley, got her a strange bracelet. It seemed... weird, but Riley explained that it is an attachment for a dating app Riley heard about from her sister. The app, apparently, read the user's heart beat and somehow used that information to find the 'perfect crush.' The app was called 'Current Crush' and Annabelle had never even heard of it before. But Riley's sister apparently was very insistent that it was the best thing that ever happened to her.
Annabelle wasn't convinced and just left the bracelet sitting on her bedside for a few days after her birthday. It sounded like just another stupid pseudo science scam that nobody with half of a brain would actually believe was real. How would a heartbeat even tell the app anything about who the wearer is compatible with? She would find someone right for her the natural way- by randomly stumbling into them by complete coincidence after making no effort whatsoever to look.
That plan wasn't really working. It was a Saturday night and Annabelle was sitting in bed watching shitty romcoms, eating ice cream. Riley was busy with her boyfriend, and even Annabelle's brother rejected hanging out with her to go out to a bar that "she wouldn't like." As she spooned another bite of ice cream into her mouth, she realized just how pathetic she felt. Was this really how she was going to spend her twenties? As that thought crossed her mind, the bracelet caught her eye on the dresser. It wouldn't hurt to try... at least it would be entertaining to look at the app. She picked up the bracelet, feeling the surprisingly firm plastic in her hand as she searched up the app on the app store. Nothing. Weird. She looked closer at the black bracelet, noticing a QR code on the inside of it. After scanning it, the download page of Current Crush appeared. This was clearly suspicious. She scrolled down on the page to look at reviews. It had five stars and six million reviews. How did an app she has never heard of before have this many reviews? But as she skimmed through the reviews, they all seemed strangely real. Almost every single one of them came with a picture of a woman's wrist with the bracelet wrapped around it. She kept scrolling, expecting to see repeating pictures to prove to herself that this was just some common scam and these were all bots boosting the app's ratings, but nothing. Every woman looked different, had different names, had different things to say. Every single one was overwhelmingly positive to an almost unsettling degree. But her curiosity was growing by the minute. The red flags were there, but Annabelle was desperate at this point anyways. What's the worst that could happen?
She scrolled to the top and clicked the download button. After a few moments, the app appeared on her home screen. She clicked on the icon- a yellow and black logo with a lighting bolt going through the name of the app. As the home screen opened up, a small pop up appeared in front of an animated blue screen that looked like waves slowly drifting down from the top of her screen to the bottom. The pop up read a short, simple message, "Please attach your Crush Band to continue!"
There was no option to reject or close the pop up. There were no options at all, just the little pop up. Annabelle sighed, then took the bracelet- or Crush Band- into her left hand reluctantly. She ignored the hesitation and wrapped it around her right wrist, clicking it on with a satisfying pop. It fit strangely perfectly. It wasn't tight or loose, it just sat perfectly in place against her skin. It was so light it felt like it wasn't even there at all- just an attachment to her body. The same moment the band clicked into place, her phone played a happy sounding jingle and the pop up went away. She picked her phone up again looking at the new screen which had the title at the top with the same lighting bolt going through the words. Beneath the logo was a text box, "Welcome to Current Crush! We are excited to help you find the real you and your perfect match! Let's start with something simple, tell us your name, gender, and age!"
Beneath the text were a few response boxes for her to fill. She typed her answers in, "Annabelle, 25, Female." After she pressed the continue button, another box came up. "Amazing! We are so happy to meet you, Annabelle. We pride ourselves on our ability to provide our users with a truly unique experience that will lead to self discovery, passion, and- best of all- romance! All we ask before we get started is that you read our Terms of Service and press accept at the bottom and we can get started with helping you!"
Annabelle scrolled past the terms of service, not caring to read them, and pressed accept at the bottom. The screen loaded again, then yet another text box appeared, "Perfect! Let us briefly explain how our app works! We hope to push our users outside of their comfort zone and make them realize things about themselves that are hidden deep within. To do this, users will simply select between two options: truth or dare. A truth will ask you a personal question that we will use to find other users who share similar thoughts or experiences to you and further create a unique profile for you. A dare will ask you to complete a challenge in your own life that will help you personally grow! After we get to know you better, we will start finding you people that we think will be good matches for you! Are you ready to begin your journey?"
What a weird dating app. Why not just let her make her own profile and scroll through people without all the bizarre steps. But she was still curious to learn more, so she pressed 'Okay.' Two simple choice boxes appeared, one reading 'truth' and the other 'dare.' She clicked the truth button.
"Great! Let's start easy, are you currently in a relationship? If not, how long have you been single?'
A text box to type in appeared beneath it. Why would she even download a dating app if she wasn't single? Ignoring how strange the question was, she typed in 'single for two years.' A loading ring appeared in the center of the screen for just a moment before another text box appeared.
"Good to know! Two years is a long time, but we hope to change that! Next, select another truth or dare!"
Pre-written messages? It was strange how it was so specific... but it was probably just an autofill thing. It would've said that about any amount of time she put in. Annabelle ignored it, and pressed truth again.
"Next, tell us something a little more personal. What is something embarrassing that has happened to you recently?"
Annabelle thought for a few moments then remembered the night of her birthday. Her older brother, Michael, threw her a small party with all of her friends and family. After the party, she and Riley were both drunk so Michael offered for them to spend the night in the guest bedroom. She woke up early the next morning extremely hungover and decided to go to the bathroom, assuming everyone was still asleep. But when she opened the bathroom door, she realized that Michael was in the shower and she somehow didn't hear the sound through the door. At the moment it was mortifying, but he was understanding and just made fun of her for it. She typed in a shortened version of the story into the text box and pressed enter, blushing as she thought about it. After a short loading screen, the app responded again.
"Brothers always have a way of making us feel silly, don't they? Thanks for sharing! Only a few more before we can start looking for pairings- why not try a dare this time?"
That was even more specific. She felt a weird feeling in her chest as the truth and dare options appeared again. The app recommended a dare, but still gave her both options yet again. She felt nervous, but shook off her nerves. It was just some stupid app. This was for fun. She pressed dare.
"Great! We want to get an idea of the authentic you! Take a selfie for us! Don't worry, this won't be on your profile unless you want it to."
On cue, a camera icon appeared at the bottom of the screen. She clicked on it and looked at her face, no make-up, messy hair, bags under her eyes. She groaned at the sight, then just flipped the camera around to take a picture of her empty room. It wasn't going on her profile anyways so why bother actually doing the challenge? The image was processed, then a text box appeared.
"Uh oh! It looks like you missed your face! Try again to proceed."
That's stupid, she thought. Why does it even care if her face is in the picture? Not to mention how advanced the app's facial recognition must be to even recognize that nobody is there. She begrudgingly sat up in bed and took an actual selfie of her face, putting on a fake smile.
"That's better! You have a great smile, Annabelle! We're almost done with this intro, you know the drill by now!"