Page 1 of Matched (LSU #5)

“ I ’ve done it! I’ve finally done it! I’m a genius!”

“Huh?” I glanced over at Jonas, who was bouncing on his feet in the kitchen doorway of our student house, waving his phone around with a wide grin on his face.

“The app. Matched LSU . You know, the one I’ve been working on for the past three months? The one that’s worth twenty percent of my final grade?”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry.” Rubbing my hand over my brow, I sighed. “Late night. Very late night. My brain hasn’t woken up yet.”

My housemate smirked at me as he stepped inside the room. “Lucy?”

“Yep. It’s not like you’re thinking, though.” Gritting my teeth, I steeled myself for Jonas’ inevitable reaction. “We had the talk.”

He gasped dramatically. “Not the talk. Let me guess how it went… She said you were incapable of commitment, and?—”

“No. It was me.”

“That was gonna be my next guess, but I thought maybe… She seemed like she was a bit, uh, over it, the last time I saw her.”

“Yeah…fair point. It was mutual, though. What’s the point in us trying to get more serious when we’re just gonna move in different directions in another few months? She’ll be up in Sheffield, and I’ll be starting my master’s degree in Plymouth in September.”

He shot me a knowing look. “You don’t seem sad about it.”

“I’m not crying into my Cheerios, if that’s what you mean.”

“You’re not even eating Cheerios.”

I glanced down at my bowl. I hadn’t even registered what I’d been shovelling into my mouth, and now I realised I’d managed to eat my way through almost an entire bowl of Weetabix. Fucking hell, I must’ve been more out of it than I thought. I didn’t even like Weetabix that much.

Shaking my head, I pushed the bowl away from me and turned back to Jonas. “I’m not sad…no. She was…she was great. We had fun together. But we want different things. It makes no sense for us to waste our time dating when, like I said, we’re going to go in different directions in a few months.”

He shot me an unimpressed look. “Mate. You always do this. I don’t know how you can give it up, just like that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You date a girl for what, two or three months max, and then you dump her. Usually for the reason you just gave me. We want different things ,” he mimicked.

“Fuck off.”

“Just saying it how it is. If you found someone you actually cared about, you’d try harder to make it work.”

“I have cared about all of them. Almost all my break-ups have been on good terms, and I’m still friends with most of my exes.”

“Okay.” Raising his hand, he pointed at himself.

“Look at me and Jada. If she told me she was moving to, I dunno, Australia or somewhere, and I’d planned on living here, I’d do everything I could to make it work.

I’d do that long-distance shit if I had to, but you know what?

I’d get on a plane in a fucking heartbeat and move my whole life to be with her.

I don’t care where I live. I can get a job doing programming anywhere, but Jada’s only in one place. ”

“You’d need a visa.”

“Not the point.” He cuffed me around the back of my head, and I gave him the finger. “That’s all hypothetical, anyway. She’s not moving to Australia. The point is, if you love someone, you don’t let them go.”

“I thought the saying was, ‘If you love someone, let them go.’”

“You’re fucking hopeless,” he muttered. “Look. If you’d been in love with Lucy, or any of your exes, you’d be crying into your Weetabix right now.”

“Okay. Yeah, I get your point.”

“Fucking finally.” Spreading his arms wide, he tipped his head back to face the ceiling. “Nate has seen the light! It’s a genuine miracle!”

“With all due respect, fuck off. Now, are you gonna tell me what you were shouting about earlier? Your app?”

“Oh yeah.” He grinned. “You, my friend, are gonna be one of my test subjects.”

“For your hook-up app?”

“One, it’s not a hook-up app. It’s for dating. Making a proper connection, not just a quick shag with someone you’re never gonna see again. Two, you’ve split up with Lucy, and you’re not bothered about it, so that means you’re free and single and ready to mingle.”

“You are such a knob. Did anyone ever tell you that?”

“Yeah, you. Frequently. Takes one to know one.” He grabbed my phone from the kitchen table. “I’m just gonna get the app set up.”

I held up my hand. “Wait. Before you do that, I want you to tell me exactly what it is this app does.”

“Okay.” He slid onto the bench seat next to me, pulling his phone from his pocket. “So you know how there’s that HookdLDN app, which is just for London?”

“Isn’t that a hook-up app?”

“Not important. The point is, it’s localised to the area, so users can find people close to them.

Makes it easier, y’know. So, my app works the same way, except I’ve localised it even more, so it’s restricted to LSU students only.

You have to sign up with your student email, so we won’t get any randoms.”

“An LSU student dating app. Yeah, I can see the appeal. I still think people would use it for hook-ups.”

“Maybe. I can’t control that. But I’ve set it up more like a dating app, with a bit of a twist. You have all these questions— Wait, I’ll show you.

” He tapped on his screen, swiping through his apps until he reached a blue square with “LSU” in block letters.

“Ignore the logo, I haven’t finished that yet. But see here, I have these questions.”

I began reading them aloud. “What’s your usual coffee order? If you could go on a date to any of the following places, which would you pick?” My brows rose. “Which of the following is your favourite LSU location?”

“Well, yeah. They’re all multiple choice, too, so the algorithm I coded will work out your closest matches based on your answers. And the best thing is, there are no photos. So it’s like a way to even the playing field.”

“No photos?”

He waved his hand between us. “Take you and me, for example. If we were both single and on the app, and someone matches with both of us. Who are they gonna pick? The good-looking footballer with the body of—of someone who works out way too much? Or me? The blue-haired beanpole with no muscle definition to speak of?”

“Not everyone’s that shallow, and you shouldn’t sell yourself short, mate.”

“I’m not. I’m realistic, and you know it’s true.”

“I guess…yeah. I can see what you’re saying. If I matched with more than one girl, I’d pick the one I was most physically attracted to.”

“And that’s why my app isn’t a hook-up app. It’s all about finding a connection with someone you might not look twice at ordinarily.”

“Alright. What do you want me to do? Just sign up for it?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got to get my lecturer to sign off on it, and once that’s done, I’ve been given permission to include the details in the LSU bulletin—the one that gets sent out to all the students.

Hopefully, enough of them will sign up to give it a decent sample size.

I’m giving them an incentive, too. Anyone who signs up will have their email address entered into a draw to win fifty quid of credit at the student union.

They can use it in the shop or the bar or whatever. ”

“Good idea.”

“Yeah, I do have them occasionally.”

“Ha ha.”

“With you, I wanna do a little interview after you’ve been on a date or even a couple of dates. Just a few questions about your experience with the app and if you thought it matched you with the right person, things like that.”

“I can do that. Want me to get set up now?”

“Yeah. Technically, I’m supposed to wait for my lecturer to sign off on it, but you’re my test subject. You get to go first.”

My phone buzzed. “Shit. I’ve got football practice in half an hour, and I haven’t even showered yet. Here. Install the app on my phone while I shower, and I’ll fill in the details later.”

“I’m holding you to that. I’m gonna be asking you questions about your experience of filling in the questions. Oh, forgot to say. Ignore it if it gives you a weird name.”

“Weird name?”

“Yeah. So you know how I mentioned no photos so people aren’t biased when they pick?

It’s the same thing with names. Even if you just put in your first name, if you’re, like, well known at uni or if you have an unusual name, then your match might guess who you are, and that’s gonna lead to more bias.

I want my app to literally just be about finding someone you have things in common with, without looks or preconceptions playing a part in it.

” He sighed. “Fuck. Is this a bad idea?”

I instantly shook my head. “No, it’s not. I think you’re onto something. Fuck knows, I always pick girls because I like the way they look. I mean, yeah, I’ve had things in common with all my girlfriends, but I wouldn’t have spoken to them if I hadn’t been into them physically.”

“Yeah, and okay, physical attraction is important, but sometimes you have to get to know someone before you find them attractive or whatever. Or you might go on the date and be talking, and then think, huh. This person is actually hot or someone I want to get to know better.” He shrugged.

“At the least, you might get a new friend out of it. Someone who shares your interests.”

“Alright. Get the app installed, and we’ll see what happens.”