Work With Brandy

Brandy got in late Tuesday, morning but when he did I greeted him with a nod and a smile. “Hey!” I grinned, and waved. I was hunched over a nest of schoolwork, and had a pair of panties shoved in my desk drawer. “So what did Fiona say?”

Brandy shrugged and closed the door behind him. “We didn’t really talk.” He said sheepishly. “We kind of just fucked the whole time.”

“Wha?” I gasped in outrage. “Brandy you’re a failure as a soldier! You didn’t follow up on a lead because you wanted to have sex?”

“Well you…”

“I know what I did.” I held my hand up. “Listen, it doesn’t matter, because I had a major breakthrough.”

He tilted his head towards me, as if it were drawn in with interest at the gravitational pull of my news. “I confronted one of the girls who attacked, me and I managed to pull some major news out of her. 1st of all, I’m pretty sure that Veronica and Marcy are part of a bigger cult. Secondly I was able to confirm that they did attack Fiona and give her that brand.”

I saw Brandy shift uncomfortably, anger overcoming his body. “So these bitches attacked my best friend, and my girlfriend?” He clenched his fist. “And I’ve just been playing video games, and fucking?” He turned away in shame. “I’m sorry Bryce.”

“Hey man.” I tried to comfort him. “That sounds like the life to me, I mean honestly. Who wouldn’t want to Fuck and play video games all day?”

“This isn’t funny. I’ve let you both down.”

“Then make it up to us, help me take them down.”

“I will.” He nodded, and grabbed his jacket. “I’ll go to the police. They don’t have anything on me. I’ll just report the crime for the two of you. Easy.”

“No.” I held up my hand. “They said if the police even get involved they’ll send the texts. No matter who calls them.”

“So what?” He spun around. “I’m just supposed to let them go on hurting people?”

He was trembling. I Guess the scope of my attack hadn’t really sunk in for him. In his defense I did act pretty chill about it when it happened. “I’ve got a way of dealing with them, that may go beyond calling the police.”

“I’m not hurting anyone.”

“Me neither, this isn’t about hurting them.” I brought out my phone. “This is about making them submit.”

—

I was up all night convincing Brandy that The Submission Accelerator was real. I wouldn’t have believed it either. All I had in the way of proof was the app itself, the texts from Veronica, and time stamps. I showed him how her messages changed as soon as I selected the trait for her. I told him about Hannah, and how flustered she’d gotten just by eating pizza with me. I told him everything, and eventually I told him about Laura Outham’s trait, and that I needed another person to make her submit for me.

He flew off the handle obviously, because he had Fiona dear, sweet, alt girl Fiona to whom he was utterly loyal. But Tuesday night was the night of honesty and I was forced to tell him the truth about her as well. It was a long night. Filled with screaming, and accusations.

The only thing I had going for me was the truth, which must always triumph over lies.

“I still don’t see why you need to go after Laura. What’s she have to do with Veronica and Marcy attacking you?”

“They’re both Kappas. You think there’s anything that happens in Kappa House without that Megalomaniac knowing about it? Not a chance. She’s involved, the whole house is involved.”

“What about Trisha?” He held his arms up faintly, he did not want to go through the plan I’d proposed. “Can’t you ask her? She’d tell you. She loves you.”

“Yeah, well she’d sacrifice twenty of me if it meant she could become a judge. I’d do it myself, and believe me I’d love to, but she hates me, plus… you’re more handsome than me.”

“That was big of you to admit.” All Brandy needed was a haircut and to put some effort into his wardrobe and the guy was a heartthrob. Exactly the type of guy Laura would go after, except he was a million times nicer than any of them. “But… it’d still be cheating.”

“Fiona’s cheating on you man.”

“I’m not even sure I believe that.”

“Brandy come on, why would I make up such an elaborate story, just to get you to fuck my arch nemesis?”

“I don’t know! None of this makes sense! Why would Fiona cheat on my, we’ve been solid for so long.”

“She hasn’t been acting at least a little bit different?”

He shrugged. “I guess she’s been pretty busy lately… skipping classes and stuff. But that doesn’t mean she’s cheating.”

I nodded, an eerie feeling coming over me. “But it does mean something’s changed…”

“What do you mean?”

“You read the texts. Would I ever, ever, ever treat someone like how I treated Veronica? Am I really the sort of guy who would extort a girl for nudes?”

“You really don’t seem the type.” He admitted.

“But I did it. Even as I was doing it, I knew I wouldn’t be able to go to the police, but something just came over me. It’s like I was possessed.”

“Oh man, don’t say possessed you’re freaking me out.”

“I think these brands did something to us, turned us into… I don’t know, sex fiends or something.”

He shriveled into a ball. “Dude, don’t say it.”

“I do. Fiona would never cheat on you, I’d never force a girl to give me her panties, and yet both things happened, and we both have brands. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Or, I’m just surrounded by shitty people.” Brandy offered. “You didn’t tell me you stole a girl’s panties.”

“Oh yeah.” I opened up a draw and showed him Marcy’s shredded pink underwear.

“Awesome.” He rubbed his eyes. “So Kappa House, is run by satanists as well as facists. They kidnapped you and Fiona, so they could give you each a brand that turned you into sex criminals… why?”

“That’s what we have to find out.”

“Brilliant.” He shook his head. “And the way we find out is for me to date Laura.”

“That’s one way, we’re looking at multiple points of attack here. I keep on pressing Veronica and Marcy, while you work on Laura.”

“But girlfriend Bryce, I have a girlfriend!”

“Exactly, that’s why you have to do this. To save save her from this.”

“By fucking Laura.”

“Thank you for your sacrifice.”

He rubbed his eyes and fell back on the bed. “I’m sorry dude, but I’m just going to need more proof. I mean… I believe that you believe all of this, but it’s just too much.”

“No problem.” I threw him my phone. “I’m going to have lunch with Hannah tomorrow. I’m going to see if I can get the last 11 points out of her before I get her second trait. As I’m working on her, watch the app. Go to the timestamps and watch it update every time I get a point from her. There’s no way I can fake that.”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure that’s 100% accurate. But I get you.”

“Just watch me work my magic, and once I get those 11 points, I’ll let you choose her trait.”

He smirked at that, and rolled his eyes. “You really think you can get 11 points out of her, over lunch?”

“Please.” I laid back in my own bed. “I’ve got here right where I want her.”