Interrogation

"We lock her up here and interrogate her until we believe her," Maggie says.

"But Josh and Minh will be here in 30 minutes," Kyle says, not sure he wants to upset Tanya.

Maggie starts moving chairs around. She places two on one side of the attic and one on the other side facing those two. "Text them that you need an extra hour to get ready. We should be able to get a confession by that time."

Kyle sighs. He was looking forward to teaching Tanya how to play Shadowrun and, as recently as 20 minutes ago, possibly making out with her some more after the game. However, Maggie had a point. Tanya and her friends could be viciously mean. He'd learned to brush it off better than most but Josh was especially **** to the bullying. He decided he had to go along with Maggie for Josh's sake.

Just then, Tanya's head popped up into the attic. "Hey, what's going on up here?"

Tanya had moved Josh's desk lamp so it pointed directly at the single chair on the other side of the room. Once Tanya had finished climbing the ladder she mouthed to Kyle "lock it."

"We're playing a new game to get warmed up," Maggie said as Kyle pulled up the ladder and locked the padlock. "We need you to sit in that chair."

"Okay," Tanya said remembering that Maggie told her on Friday that she should "come play the game like it's your favorite thing to do in the world." So Tanya, assuming this was part of the game, happily took the seat in the bright light. She carefully crossed her legs to prevent the shortness of her skirt from flashing Kyle and Maggie.

Maggie and Kyle sat in the chairs opposite from her. "Tanya, here's the deal," Maggie starts, " Kyle and I are really fucking confused right now so we need you to be completely honest with us."

"Sure, I'll be completely honest."

"Absolutely totally truthful. You won't keep anything a secret during this interrogation."

"I'm excited to play this game! Of course, I'll be totally truthful."

Kyle jumps in before Maggie can continue. He cuts right to the big question, "Why did you kiss us?"

"I wanted to," Tanya replied matter-of-factly. "I still want to."

"See," Kyle says to Maggie on the other side of the blinding light. "I told you. Now can we build her character so we can be ready to play when the guys get here?"

Maggie isn't sold on it. "How long have you wanted to kiss us?"

"Ever since McKenzie said I wanted to kiss both of you while walking home from school on Thursday."

"Wait, McKenzie put you up to this? Why?" Maggie's voice carries a tone of hurt.

"All McKenzie did was tell me I wanted to kiss you. After she said it I realized she was right. When I saw you Friday morning it was all I could think about."

There's silence on the other side of the room for a minute. Finally, Maggie asks, "why did you sit with us on Thursday?"

"Kyle asked."

"And why did you throw away your top on Thursday?"

"Because Whitney said it was ghastly and out-of-fashion and it would be better off in the garbage."

Kyle doesn't quite yet understand where Maggie is going with these odd questions yet.

"And why did you skip cheerleading practice to come play Shadowrun with us?"

Remembering that she would normally be at cheerleading practice right now briefly triggered panic in Tanya's brain. However, it quickly subsided when she remembered how much she loved playing this game. "Kyle asked me to come play. Remember? You were there at lunch with us."

"Okay, sure," Maggie says. She looks at Kyle and takes a deep breath before asking the next question. She almost doesn't want to but she thinks it'll get right to the heart of the problem. "but why did you start paying attention to Kyle in the first place?"

"Oh, that's easy, when he asked me to help with the A/V equipment Thursday morning he said he was glad I wasn't going to ignore him this year."

Kyle smiles. "I really am glad about that, Tanya. And based on this morning I know you are, too."

Maggie shakes her head and tries to rephrase the question. "Tanya, are you only paying attention to Kyle because he told you that you aren't going to ignore him this year?"

"Yes." Her answer is simple. Tanya doesn't seem to understand what her words mean. Maggie gets it. Kyle is still grasping.

He says, "I don't understand, so she's being nice to me because I asked her to? So what?"

"It isn't because you asked, Kyle. It's because you told her to. Tanya, why are you wearing that trash bag?"

"During lunch on Thursday Kyle told me to 'wear nothing but a trash bag' and that we'd 'call it trashion.'"

"I'd completely forgotten I said that. I didn't think you'd take me seriously."

Maggie sighs in frustration. "Kyle, she didn't do it because she took you seriously, she did it because she doesn't have any other option."

Tanya's confused by Maggie's statement. "What do you mean I don't have any other option? I wore this because I wanted to." Wait, didn't she wear it because she wanted to? She looks down at the trash bag covering her body. She smiles and laughs, oh right, this is all part of the game. She loves it.

It starts to click for Kyle. "You mean she's been brainwashed to follow my commands?"

"I don't think it's only you." Maggie says unsure, "Tanya, just to make sure you're taking this seriously, this isn't really a game. Remember you need to answer completely and totally honest. Do you have to do anything people tell you?"

"Yes," Tanya hears herself say when she meant to say "that's ridiculous." She tries again. "Wait, I mean, YES." She says it again. "YES."

"Why?" Maggie asks.

Tanya says she can't remember, which is true. Whatever the gypsy woman did to her that day in the alley included erasing her memory of being cursed. "I have no idea. Wait, is what I said true? It can't be!"

Tanya starts to panic, so Kyle puts it to the test. "Uncross your legs." She does exactly that. She uncrosses her legs and the eighteen-year-old gets another glance at her pussy before she tries her best to hold her thighs tightly together.

"Kyle!" Maggie hisses at his order. "Tanya, you can cross them again."

Relieved, she lifts one leg and puts it back over the other. "Th-thank you, Maggie, I think. Oh, fuck what's happening to me!?"

Maggie hears a sniffle come from Kyle's direction. She looks over and he's wiping a tear from his eye. "I only just realized something. If this is true...Tanya, honestly, did you really like us or did you only kiss us because McKenzie told you to? Be honest. How do you really feel about us?"

A pained look crosses Tanya's face. "It m-makes me sick to think about kissing you. Both of you. I mean, for some reason I want to kiss you, it makes me crazy but, it's so beneath who I am. Kyle, you're a total dork. Maggie, I stopped hanging out with you because you purposely chose to become a freakazoid weirdo. Before Thursday I never once thought about kissing either of you. I probably would have gone through the entire year without speaking to either of you. I thought I'd be making out with Chad this weekend and not getting horny over two losers in a Satanic Scrotum or whatever you call this geek hole."

"STOP!" Maggie yells with the hurt making her voice shake. "JUST...just stop."

Tanya immediately stops talking. Kyle is quietly sobbing. Maggie stares at her former best friend absolutely fuming. Less than an hour ago she thought her long-time crush had been realized, heck, Kyle felt the same, but it turns out nothing was different. She was still, under the brainwashed surface, the cold, mean Co-Captain of Bitch Club. She stared with venom in her eyes. "Sit quietly while we figure out what to do with you," Maggie says, "and...and spread your legs." She undoes her previous kindness. Tanya uncrosses her legs and spreads them wide. It brings a little bit of solace to Kyle who now has a fully unobscured view of the Ice Queen's snatch.

"So," he sniffs not looking away, "now what?"