“It will be easy money!”
Jamie exclaims as he shoves his phone in my face. On his screen is an app called EzCash. From the name alone and the app’s look, I can already tell it’s sketchy. I give Jamie a disapproving look and take his phone away from him. “Jamie, this is a scam. Please tell me you didn’t give them your card number or personal information.”
“Oh, come on, Katie! Just look at my bank account after placing a couple of bets.” Jamie takes his phone from my hand and scrolls to show me his bank account, which has over $3000. I look back at him in shock and yank his cell phone from him again. “There’s no way this is real! You don’t even have a job; where did you get all this?” I click different buttons to prove that the number he’s showing me is fake.
Jamie lets me do so for a few minutes before I finally give up and return his phone to him with a sigh,
“You seriously got all this money just from this sketchy app?”
“Just try it out here. I’ll even download it for you and sign you up.” Before I can even respond, Jamie snags my phone and starts downloading the app. I quickly tried to return it from him, but it was too late. I can already see the same interface on his phone pulled up onto mine. I snap at Jamie, “Dude, what the heck?! If you put some virus on my phone, I swear to god-” He shushes me and returns my phone, “Just bet once, okay? Look, I’ll even bet against you and let you win.”
I pause before I get a notification from Jamie: “I bet you $100 you won’t throw your phone across the room.” I roll my eyes, and I throw my phone across the room. “There, are you happy now?” I snapped. Soon after, I looked at my phone, and I saw that there was $100 in my account. Jamie smiles, “See? Easy money, just like I said.”
“You just do random bets that people send you? What if you don’t want to do them?” Jamie pauses momentarily, answering, “Well, then you lose the bet.” I roll my eyes, “well. I mean, what happens if someone sends you a bet for like… a million dollars or something?”
“You can’t place a bet for more money than what you have in your account, and I doubt any millionaires are using this app,” Jamie says matter-of-factly. I’m still skeptical, but I shrug it off and do more research when I get home because I feel Jamie has no idea what he’s talking about. “Whatever, Jamie. I have to get home soon; I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Jamie nods before we both head our separate ways. When I get home, I search for more information about this app. It turns out it is pretty legit, and the developers spent a long time making sure the rules were fair and people wouldn’t get their bank accounts hacked. Maybe Jamie was right for once, but I won’t admit that to him and use this stupid app. That’s when Jamie sends me another bet, but I ignore it and fall asleep.
I didn’t see Jamie the next day, unlike him. He must be sick or something because he never misses school. Later in the day, I checked the bet he sent me. I open the app, and the bet says:
I bet you $1000 to skip at least half the day tomorrow.
I roll my eyes and check my watch. Luckily, I saw the bet before lunch, or I would be out of $ 1,000. I grab my bag and head out of the school to my car. My mom will kill me when I get home, but I don’t have to go there quite yet, so I head over to Jamie’s house to check on him. On the way there, I get another bet from Jamie.
I bet you $2000 to come to my house.
I stare at the notification for a minute; it seems odd. Why would Jamie give me so much money to come to his house? He’s usually very stingy, especially when it comes to money. As I approach his house, I try to rack my brain for any possibility of why he would give me so much money. I look in the window as I get closer and realize the house is dark. Is he not home, and if he’s not, then why would he give me money to come over? This day keeps getting weirder and weirder. I grab the spare key to the house from under the mat and go to unlock the door, but it creaks open. I suspiciously enter his home, and it’s deadly quiet.
“Jamie? This better not be some dumb prank,” I yell across the house as I search for him. That’s when I suddenly hear a noise from his room and walk up to the door to listen. It sounds like… crying? I slowly push the door open and look around his room, but I don’t see anyone. I walk farther into the room, and the door slams behind me. Before I can react, I feel something hit me in the back of the head. I fell to the floor, and through my blurry vision, I saw Jamie with a metal baseball bat. I try to yell, scream, anything to get Jamie’s attention, but nothing comes out. He kneels to me and shows me his phone.
I bet you $1,000,000 to kill your best friend.
I stare up at him, tears forming in my eyes. Jamie stands up again and speaks to me as he lifts the bat. “I’m sorry… I thought it would be easy money,” he sobs as he swings the bat at my head once again, and my vision goes black.