She gave amber back her shoes and went looking for Darlene, she found her standing out front smoking a cigarette, barefoot.

“Hey, come upstairs you can smoke in my room.”

Darlene threw her cigarette and bounced in behind Raine, “Sooo?” she said putting an arm around Raine’s shoulder.

“Whose idea was it for him to come after me instead of you?”

“That would be yours truly.”

Raine smiled, “how did you convince him?”

“It didn’t take much, I was honestly shocked, Elliot has trouble talking to people he knows let alone strangers.”

“So do I,” Raine said as she opened her door and fell onto her mattress. Darlene sat beside her and pulled her shirt off and threw it across the room. Raine chuckled, “Elliot asked if I was into you.”

Darlene laughed, “you would be if you had any taste.”

“If I were into girls, I would like you probably.”

“Probably?”

“I like you now, just you know.”

“That’s fine, leave me for my brother, I see how it is,” Darlene joked.

“SO, what did you say to him, I mean why did he come out there?”

“Well…” Darlene tilted her head and smiled, “after you left, I just sat there and he asked if I was going to go check on you and I said ‘no, she’s fine.”

“And?”

“And that’s it when I said no, he jumped up and took off.”

“Did you know he would do that?”

“Oh he-ell no, I mean I know my brother better than anyone and it’s not totally out of character for him to do random shit… oh that’s him texting me.”

“Ugh, I’m nervous.”

“He wants your phone number, what did I tell you bi-otch?”

“He’s going to hack me, isn’t he?”

“Oh, he is for sure going to hack you… is that… okay?”

Raine shrugged, “If I didn’t want people knowing something, I wouldn’t put it on the internet.”

“You realize he will be reading private emails, messages, PRIVATE,” she emphasized.

“Well I do have messages between me and that guy I told you about, the abusive one, he sends me long mean messages every now and then, that could end badly.”

“Shit, hang on,” Darlene dialed a number and held the phone to her ear, “Elliot hey, is Mr. Robot close enough for you to let me talk to him… alone,” she paused, “because I just need to talk to him, please.”

She waited a while before saying, “hey is this you?... Okay well, listen how much do you know about what Elliot is up to with Raine?... Aww really? That’s great but listen DO NOT let him hack her tonight whatever it takes…because she has messages with her abusive ex and I don’t want him going all vengeancey and you know…yes I know he deserves it but still Elliot doesn’t need that and you know it…She’ll delete them tonight… okay ASAP, but you do your part, now let me talk to him again...” Darlene stuck her finger at Raine and then pointed to her laptop. Raine got the laptop and began searching through all her private messages. No one emailed her that wasn’t business-related so she didn’t even bother with that. Darlene convinced Elliot that he didn’t need to know what she and Mr. Robot talked about and then got off the phone.

Raine looked at her, “won't he be able to retrieve these somehow?”

“He probably could, but he doesn’t know he needs to… as long as most things look normal, he won’t dig deeper, he’s just curious about you and…”

“He feels like it helps him get to know someone to ease his social anxiety?”

“Exactly… see? I knew you were good at this.”

“I’m so glad I deleted most of these already, this is hard to read.”

“What a DICKHEAD!” Darlene said reading some of the messages over her shoulder.

“Don’t you start, this has been over a long time.”

“He messaged you last week, maybe I should let Elliot…”

“No, if it would take him back to a dark place it’s not worth it, I can just ignore this guy.”

“Not forever, people like him don’t go away, they need gotten rid of.”

“Oh boy, I guess it runs in the family.”

“We took down people worse than this, taking this guy down would be an hour on a Tuesday night, you know he’s probably into some sick shit, guys like this always are.”

Raine could see the wheels turning in Darlene’s head, “Listen, when Elliot gets to a really good place, if this guy hasn’t stopped, I will let you know and you can decide if it’s a good idea for Elliot to do… whatever it is he does, but please, for now, for Elliot’s health, let it go.”

Darlene bit her lip for a minute then rolled her eyes and sighed, “fine.”

They got it all done and fell asleep, then at around 2 am Raine felt her phone buzzing underneath her with a muffled *ding*. She slipped one eye open and saw a number she didn’t recognize had texted her. She opened it and it just said: Hey

She knew who it was, it had to be.

R: Hi, Elliot

E: How did you know?

R: No friends, remember?

E: Did D tell you I asked for your #?

She didn’t know if she should tell him or not.

R: Yes

She waited for another message and almost fell back to sleep waiting. When she heard a *ding* it made her heart leap.

E: You cool with that?

“Dude! Turn it on vibrate,” Darlene mumbled from her side of the mattress. Raine put it on silent and tried to think of a witty response.

R: That depends

E: On?

R: What are your intentions?

E: What do you mean??

R: I’m just messing with you again, yes, I’m glad she gave you my number

E: *smiley face*

R: didn’t figure you for a smiley face kind of guy

E: I’m not, but you can’t see me, and I wanted you to know I’m smiling

E: I can promise to never send a winking face if that helps

R: It does, thank you

E: so wryd?

R: Lying in bed, D is asleep, she yelled at me because my phone kept dinging

E: Put it on silent

R: I did, don’t want her wrath

E: No, you don’t

R: Wryd?

E: Lying in bed too, petting flipper

R: Flipper?

Did she even want to know?

E: My dog

R: Aww

E: She says hello

R: Tell her I said akfdjdfkj because she’s cute

E: Lol okay… how do you know she’s cute though?

R: She’s a DOG

E: Fair enough

R: Don’t you have work tomorrow?

E: Yea, I was too wired to sleep I’m sorry

R: you’re fine, what has you wired?

E: Idk I just feel… you know?

R: Tell me

She waited a long time to hear the ding again, but she didn’t, eventually, she fell asleep with the phone in her hand. She woke up kind of panicked hoping she hadn’t missed Elliot’s response and accidentally ignored him. She looked at her phone and there was nothing. She frowned at it.

“What did he do now?”

“What?!” Raine jumped at the unexpected voice, she thought Darlene was asleep.

“Either Elliot said something stupid or you want to destroy your phone for some reason because you look pissed.”

“No, I’m not mad just confused.”

“About Elliot?”

“Yea.”

“Well get used to that.”

“He just stopped responding like… almost in the middle of a sentence.”

“Typical.”

“Do you think he’s okay?”

“I’m sure he’s fine… do you even watch the news? He stopped a nuclear meltdown; he can handle himself.”

“He did WHAT?”

“So, you don’t watch the news.”

“You didn’t tell me that part.”

“Yea… cause it was on THE NEWS.”

“Damn…”

Darlene laughed, “my brother the superhero…”

“Right? I mean… wow…”

“I thought it was weird when I told you his name and you had no reaction.”

“How do people usually respond?”

“They are either really starstruck or really suspicious, there are theories that he was in on it and a bunch of other bullshit, that’s the nature of people, that’s why he never leaves his hood down long in public, I mean he’s been wearing it like that for a while but I thought after… never mind it’s a long story, you’ve heard it all before.”

“He must wonder why I didn’t mention it.”

“I think that’s one of the things he probably liked about you, it makes you mysterious and different.”

“All it really means is that I don’t have cable.”

Darlene laughed.

Raine thought about it, “well I probably wouldn’t have mentioned it regardless because I hate putting people on the spot.”

Darlene smiled, “you are honestly really good for him, everything I know about you, your traits are things he needs.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t explain it, but I know, anyway I gotta go dog sit while Elliot is at work since I am off today.”

“Yea and I have to work.”

“I’m staying with Elliot tonight, we are gonna get stoned and watch movies.”

Raine didn’t say anything but she really wished she had the night off to join them, not that she was even invited. It was Friday and none of them had to work the next day. Well as far as she could guess anyway, considering what Elliot’s job was, she figured he had weekends off and worked the day shift. He was an office worker, which seemed way out of character for him.

“We might come by later and say hi…” Darlene said.

“We? As in you and Elliot?”

“Yea and I might just have something in mind for you.”

“NO! I don’t know what it is, but no.”

“You’ll thank me later, By-ee” Darlene sang as she closed the door behind her before Raine could protest.

Raine got ready for work and decided since Elliot might be in later to not wear her uniform, she was the person in charge after all. So, she chose her favorite skirt which was a plaid black and red schoolgirl type skirt with a long-sleeved black tee shirt and thigh-high boots, and a black choker. She took a shower and wore her hair straight, so it fell past her breasts. She examined her dye job; she had opted for jet black on the bottom layer and the top layer was light pink. So, she had a pink and black stripes thing going on. She was always changing her hair color, like most artistic people, she supposed. She grabbed her black apron, she needed to at least wear that to keep her outfit clean. She walked downstairs and jumped into work, hoping to avoid comments from her coworkers. It didn’t work, they all teased her and made whistling noises.

“Who you are dressing up for?” Amber asked her.

“Myself,” she said.

“Come on,” Amber said.

“No really, I mean maybe a guy I like is coming over later, but he has seen me crying and in sweatpants already so… I dressed like this, so I feel confident… for me.”

“Who is he?” Amber asked, she was friendly with Raine, but they didn’t hang out outside of work.

“Umm just someone I met… Darlene introduced us.”

“Yikes.”

“What?”

“I mean I love Darlene but aside from you I figure her friends are pretty sketch.”

“It’s not her friend… it’s her brother.”

“Oooh that guy, wasn’t he on the news?”

Raine sighed, “apparently.”

“He saved a lot of lives.”

“Yep,” she didn’t want to have this conversation, it was Elliot’s business, and apparently, he was trying to lay low.

Raine looked at her phone for the thousandth time and still nothing. She didn’t think she had said anything wrong, but it was hard to tell what he found when he hacked her. She rarely posted anything to social media. Her insta was mainly pictures of her artwork and her tumblr was just her poetry. She didn’t post on Facebook, she only had one because her abusive ex had literally forced her, to keep tabs on her. She tried to keep busy and ignore the fact that she hadn’t received a text all day, not even from Darlene. The outfit had been a huge mistake because it brought attention from all the wrong people. The wrong people being guys who weren’t Elliot. It was nearing eight-thirty and she got off work at nine and she grew more disappointed with each minute without a word from either Alderson. Things were slow so she told Amber and the rest of the crew she was heading upstairs early. She took off her apron and started toward the stairs.

Then Amber said, “Hey Raine, Darlene just walked in, and… yep there’s her brother.”

Raine felt her heart leap into her throat. She turned around and peaked into the dining area. There was Darlene bouncing in, Elliot sauntering in behind her, he lowered his hood and ran a hand through his hair. Raine smiled at this endearing habit he had. They took a booth in the corner Elliot facing away from the counter to look out the window. Raine grabbed her notepad and pen from her apron pocket. She walked over and saw Elliot’s reflection in the window watching her. Darlene was giving her a sly grin, and she started to worry about what Darlene had planned. She came around to stand beside the table between them.