Stacey is compelled to sell her car as well

Stacey heard someone knock on the door of her room.

“Yes?”, she said.

Her father walked in to her room.

“Stacey, “ he said, “I take it that you’re planning to uphold your commitment and are not looking to back out?”

Stacey nodded.

“Well, it’s about 4 PM. If you did want to back out, you have about 16 hours left. I would use this time wisely”

“Yes dad, thanks”, she said. Not sure if she was happy with him talking about it. She had been looking forward to moving in with Bridget, but now that her parents had changed their tone and had created this window of opportunity for her to reconsider she hadn’t been so sure anymore.

“Anyways, that’s not really what I came upstairs for. You wanted to be treated exactly the same as this other girl, right? Getting the exact same experience as her?”

Stacey nodded agaiIn. Her father certainly had listened very well to her and the zoo’s CEO, but she wasn’t very sure if that was a good thing now.

“Well, Bridget has sold her car today, so it’s your turn now to do the same”, her dad said.

Stacey sat still, not sure if what she was hearing it right.

“My, my, car?”, she stammered? It had been the reason why she had taken her job at the zoo in the first place, so she could buy a nice car. She had known that maybe she would have to get rid of it as part of my moving into the zoo, but she had tried to ignore and suppress any thoughts about it. That car was everything she had worked for the first six months of her career at the zoo. She was ready to give up a lot, but not her car – not so soon.

“Yes, your car.” her father said. “You won’t need it anymore once you’ve moved into the zoo, and for these last few days you can use our car, should you really need it”.

He was right, but she wasn’t willing to admit it, not yet.

“How do you know that Bridget sold her car today?”, she asked, switching to defensive mode.

“Oh that’s easy, “, her father said, “your boss, Mr. Petersson, just called me about it. He’s keeping me appraised of any changes that we need to be aware of.”

“And how does he know?”

“Well, he has someone to look after her wellbeing. They also put some cameras inside her apartment to make sure she's alright”, her dad said.

This was true, but it was a little bit more sinister. The man with the dark blue shirt and jeans that Bridget had thought she had seen a few times in her apartment building had been working for the Private Investigator’s (PI) office that the zoo CEO had hired to keep track of what Bridget was up to. The PI's office would follow her 24/7, wherever she went. When she had gone downstairs to take a shower (and got thoroughly fucked), they had found the door unlocked and had installed the spy cameras. At least one in every room of her apartment. On top of that they had installed spyware on her mobile phone and laptop in order to also track her every move online.

“Okay, it makes sense that a girl who bears it all in the zoo agrees to have some cameras installed in her apartment”, Stacey said.

“Exactly”

“So what if I put it for sale, and there is no buyer before I move into the zoo?”, she asked.

“Well, you go to an online appraisal service, and you pick 60-70% of the price that they say the car is worth. Just like Bridget did. Then you create an ad online for that price. If it doesn’t sell within the hour, we’ll lower the price aggressively in order to ensure that it will sell quickly. Again, just like Bridget did”, her father said.

Stacey couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Sell her car, for only 60-70% of the current value?! Or maybe even less if it didn’t sell within the hour? An hour was pretty short for something like this, right?

She had wanted to move into the zoo and be with Bridget 24/7. She had agreed to have the exact same experience as Bridget. In fact, it had been her suggestion. Stacey sighed. She really loved her car, all those memories that she had where her car was involved in; and now it would be sold. For pennies on the dollar, no less.

However, a car was just something that could be replaced. Even if she didn’t get full price for her car. It wasn’t worth backing out of this whole thing, just for a car, right? And with that she decided to sell her car. Albeit with tears slowly filling up her eyes.

“Okay dad, I will sell the car”, Stacey said.

“Please make sure you have the ad online within half an hour and send it to me, please”, her father said as he walked out of her room again.

Stacey proceeded to quickly snap some photos of her car and put the ad online. The price she ended up asking was 7500 dollars.

Just like Bridget had done, Stacey kept refreshing the ad. There were plenty of views (not hers), but no offers to buy her car. She decided to distract herself from the ad by going outside for a bit and clean out her car already from all her personal belongings. She found a lot of stuff that had been there forever, some of the things she thought she’d lost a long time ago.

When she was done cleaning out her car she came up to her room again to check on the ad once more. 1100 Views, 0 Offers, it said. ‘Damn it!’, she thought.

Not long after this her father showed up in her room again; “And, Stacey, any offers?”

“No, dad”, Stacey said. Thinking she knew what would be in store. They would knock off maybe 10-20% or something, ensuring that it would then actually sell.

“That’s too bad, Stacey, and I really mean that. I know how much that car means to you.”, her dad said. “In order to have the exact same experience as the other girl, we’re now gonna set a bit of a different price.”

Stacey looked at her dad. His voice was genuine, a little remorseful, perhaps. She shuddered at what he was going to say next. By the way he said it, 10-20% off the price seemed like a pretty good deal, but she was afraid it was gonna be something more drastic.

“The next price you’re going to set it at is 1 dollar, total”, her dad continued.

“No! It can’t be! Why would Bridget do such a thing?!”, Stacey wept.

“I guess she wanted to get rid of it quickly, Stacey. If you really don’t want to do it you can always back out. But if you don’t want to back out, I expect to see an updated price within the next 5 minutes on that ad of yours”. As he said that, he left her room once more.

Stacey sat at her chair. She couldn’t believe it. Why would Bridget do such a thing. Why had Stacey dug this hole for herself? A hole that offered a single escape, but with a price so steep it was hardly worth it.

While it became more and more difficult to look through her tears she decided that it simply had to be done. She adjusted the price to 1 dollar.

Sure enough, within a few minutes she received a new message that she had received an offer of the full asking price. She sent him her address and he replied that he’d be there in a few minutes.

Stacey cried on her bed. What had seen like a very fun thing, a way to let go for once and a possibility to finally move out of her parents’ place was slowly turning into a nightmare. She kept saying to herself that it was just a piece of metal, something that she could replace later on. Maybe even with the same make and model if she wanted to. She decided that she wasn’t going to back out. She had made a plan and would stick to it.

Not much later the doorbell rang. Stacey ran downstairs, expecting it to be the guy who had replied to her ad. In front of her stood a man of 25-30 years old.

“I’m here for the one dollar car”, he said.

“That’s the one.“ Stacey pointed out as she walked towards it.

“Why are you selling it, and why for such a low price?”

“That’s a long story. Though I assure you there’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Okay, I’ll take it”

While he took his wallet from his rear pocket, Stacey signed the title of her car, just like Bridget had done earlier that day.

After Stacey had signed the title and handed it to him, he handed her a one dollar bill as well as a small coin. It was a ten-cent coin.

“A 10% tip”, he said with an evil grin on his face.

It hurt. The tip was really adding insult to injury. She cried as he drove off. Her precious car, sold. For just a dollar. Only because she’d been so stupid to say that she wanted the exact treatment as Bridget had. She hoped it would better pay off soon.