The Card He Stole

Chapter 1

I was studying vocabulary in the library when my roommate texted me.

“Logan just took the membership card from beside your bunk. The one for that seafood restaurant off campus. He said you knew about it.”

“But I heard him on the phone saying he was taking his girlfriend and all her roommates out for seafood and that they could order whatever they wanted. Wasn’t he complaining last night that he had no money for food? Something feels off.”

“If I remember right, that card gets you a discount, and there’s still more than three thousand dollars on it, isn’t there?”

The moment I realized what was happening, I called the restaurant and had the card canceled.

By that evening, news that Logan Carter and his girlfriend had been taken away by the police after trying to dine and dash had spread across campus.

When Noah Bennett first called me, I was confused.

Logan came from an ordinary family. His parents only gave him about two hundred dollars a month for living expenses. Just yesterday, he had been complaining in our dorm that he had nothing left to live on, then borrowed seventy-five dollars from me for food.

How had he suddenly found the money today?

Enough money, apparently, to treat his girlfriend’s entire dorm to seafood.

The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

I was a regular at the seafood restaurant just off campus. The food was fresh, everything tasted great, and Marcus Bell, the owner, always took good care of his customers.

My family was fairly well-off. The last time I mentioned the place to my dad, he opened a membership account for me and loaded seventy-five hundred dollars onto it in one go.

I had used it for quite a while, but there was still a little over three thousand dollars left.

The restaurant was excellent in every respect except one: it was expensive. Definitely not priced for the average college student.

As for me, no matter what else I was willing to compromise on, food wasn’t one of those things.

There were only three of us in the dorm, and treating my two roommates to seafood wasn’t a major expense for me. Whenever we went out for a meal together, I usually chose that restaurant.

Of course, I wasn’t paying for them for no reason.

Noah had excellent grades. He was always helping me, sometimes openly and sometimes without making a big deal of it, whether I was studying for an exam or struggling with an assignment. College was much easier with him around.

Chapter 2

Logan’s grades were terrible, so he couldn’t help me academically, but he was hardworking. He picked up my packages and food deliveries, and he was quick and reliable whenever I asked him to run an errand.

Sometimes, when I planned to eat at the seafood restaurant but didn’t want to wait for my food after I arrived, I gave Logan my membership card and asked him to go ahead and place the order. That way, everything would be ready by the time I got there.

Usually, there was enough food for him too.

Recently, however, I had taken that privilege away.

When Logan first started ordering ahead for me, he had been too embarrassed to stay and eat with me.

But the more often it happened, the bolder he became.

At first, he only ate when I invited him. Sometimes I ordered an extra small portion and let him take it back to the dorm.

Then he began testing my limits.

He stopped following my order exactly.

I didn’t like salmon, but one time he ordered it anyway. He claimed he had selected it by accident, and I didn’t give him a hard time over it.

After that, though, several plates of salmon appeared on the table every single time I asked him to order ahead.

The way he mooched off me changed too. Instead of packing up a little food to take home, he began ordering two servings of everything, then sitting down at the table and eating with me.

The last straw came when I arrived and found two king crabs on the table that I had never ordered.

That was when I realized I couldn’t let things continue.

I had only recently taken the membership card back from Logan, and I hadn’t gotten around to changing the PIN. Since he knew the code, he could charge anything he wanted directly to my account.

Logan was notoriously cheap. He once bought his girlfriend a five-dollar lipstick and complained that she was too materialistic.

Now this broke, stingy guy had suddenly decided to treat his girlfriend and all her roommates to an expensive seafood dinner, right after taking my membership card.

Under those circumstances, it was hard not to assume the worst.

There was no reason to hurt someone without cause, but there was nothing wrong with protecting yourself either.

My family might have money, but that didn’t make me Logan’s personal ATM. More importantly, he had taken the card without even asking.

Once I put everything together, I immediately called Marcus Bell. I told him my membership card had been stolen and asked him to cancel it before anyone could use the remaining balance.

With that much money loaded onto the card, I was one of the restaurant’s top-tier VIPs.

Chapter 3

When I told Marcus Bell the card was missing, he said, “There’s no need to cancel it. We can freeze the account instead. Once it’s frozen, it can’t be reactivated without your personal authorization.”

“Try looking for the card again. If it doesn’t turn up, we’ll replace it free of charge. Just come by whenever you have time and call me beforehand.”

I readily agreed. As long as Logan couldn’t use it, I didn’t care whether the card was frozen or canceled.

With that taken care of, I opened a bag of chips and went back to my game.

Halfway through a match, my phone suddenly rang.

It was Logan.

“Hey, Evan, I’m taking your card to the seafood place, all right? My girlfriend and her roommates have been craving seafood, and it’s rare for everyone to be free at the same time. You want to come with us? You probably won’t know anyone there, though. It might be kind of awkward.”

This sort of thing had happened before.

On certain days, the restaurant offered discounts to anyone who presented a membership card. I often lent mine to close friends. They never touched the balance on it; they only used it for the discount.

Their purchases also earned points on my account, so everyone benefited. I’d always been happy to lend the card out.

Since we were friends, they would usually ask whether I wanted to join them. I knew their invitations were sincere, but I generally turned them down. I had no interest in intruding on someone else’s get-together.

No matter what Logan said, even if he insisted that I come, I wouldn’t have gone.

But that last remark of his sounded less like an invitation and more like a warning not to show up.

He wanted to use my card, yet he was terrified I might actually accept his offer and join them for dinner. I had never seen anything like it.

I gave a cold laugh. “Sure. Go ahead and use it. I’m not coming, so enjoy yourselves.”

Logan either didn’t notice my irritation or pretended not to. He agreed enthusiastically.

He had already taken the card without asking, but he still put on an act as though he hadn’t.

“You’re the best, Evan. I knew you wouldn’t say no! The card’s still in the usual place, right? I’ll swing by and grab it in a bit. Sorry to bother you. Go back to your game.”

Then he hung up before I could say another word.

Honestly, his attitude infuriated me.

I forced myself to finish the match, still simmering with anger. Before I could start another one, a message arrived from Marcus.

He had sent me a video.

In the video, Logan Carter had cleaned himself up so well that, at first glance, he looked every inch the spoiled son of a wealthy family.

A sweet-faced girl clung to his arm, while more than ten other girls crowded around them. Logan, however, looked distinctly uncomfortable.

The girl on his arm was his girlfriend, Vanessa Hayes.