Roller Coaster

Chapter 13 – Roller Coaster

“How fucking DARE you barge in like that!” Maisie shouts. Brad looked at her in astonishment. Either she didn’t hear him or was only thinking about the one person and not anyone else around.

“Excuse me?!” The arcade owner, a short bald man, replied. “I’m calling the police. This is ridiculous. This is a family establishment.”

“Oh yeah, call the cops, tell them how you just walked in on me in the women’s bathroom!” Maisie was standing and moving toward him.

“Lady, we have it on camera” He points up to the surveillance cameras surrounding them.

“Shit” Brad thought “She definitely didn’t hear me, we’re fucked.”

“Oh, do you? Well, prove it. You show me the footage, and I’ll confess everything to the cops when they get here.”

“I don’t have to show you anything!” He shouts back, but his voice wavered ever so slightly.

“That’s what I thought.” Maisie shrugged, “Come on, we’re leaving.”

At this point the arcade owner realized he was not winning this. It was early afternoon. All the kids were at school and the adults still at work. Why didn’t he fix those damned cameras? Money. It always came down to money. Shit. He could try to push things further, call the cops anyway. He knew Brad, kid was a regular. Good kid, or so he thought.

He started, “Just, just get out.” He pointed to the door. “Don’t come back. Ever. You’re both banned for life.”

Brad felt Maisie tense up like she was about to go off again, but he couldn’t let her. He’d known Ernie for years. “Maisie, let it go. We’re leaving. Ernie, I’m sorry about this, truly. I promise we won’t be back. We got more than a little carried away.”

Ernie was stuck. The situation in which he’d caught the two was completely unacceptable and if there had been kids there, they would’ve absolutely gone to jail. Yet he couldn’t help thinking about his own high school years. Hell, even after high school for that matter. He would’ve killed to have a girl like that notice him, let alone blow him in an arcade! Up till now, he’d only seen this Maisie girl with Brad once or twice, and she was never thrilled to be there. Maybe he’d been tricked into this, not that it would’ve taken much convincing.

The two were almost at the door when Ernie called after them, “Hey kid!” The two turned. “Look, I get it, and good for you, but if I let you come back, this can never happen again. I mean ever, you two so much as look at each other inappropriately, I will call the cops. We clear?”

Brad walked over to Ernie while Maisie stayed at the door. “Thank you, Ernie. I mean it. You’ve always been good to me, and I didn’t mean for things to go that far. It won’t happen again. But I gotta ask” Ernie raised an eyebrow, “Are we really the first to get caught in that game? I mean, you can’t tell me no one’s ever thought of it.”

Ernie chuckled, “Get out of here before I change my mind”

Brad worked his way back to the door and left with Maisie. When they got out, Brad turned to Maisie.

“What. The fuck. Was that?” He asked.

“That was me following orders and proving a point.” She replied curtly.

“And what point would that be? How much can we fuck up poor Ernie? I mean, you threatened to tell the cops he was perving on you! And you thought antagonizing him would be the best way to get out of it?”

“There were other ways. The easiest would’ve been apologizing for it like you did.” Maisie replied, still straight to the point. She was obviously not happy.

“Then why didn’t you do that?!” Brad cried incredulously.

“Because. I was hoping to show you what it felt like to be out of control, to have everything you thought you knew about someone upended in two simple words.”

“What are you talking about?” Brad just looked at her. They had stopped walking at some point.

She balled a first and pounded on Brad’s chest and held it there. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to prove a point. She looked up straight into his eyes and said, “Maisie, finish.” Then she stayed silent. The ball was in Brad’s court, and she wasn’t about to give up that advantage.

Brad thought back to the events and realized what she meant. The flicker of thought and recognition passed through his eyes.

“Did you really think I was going to stop? Did you really think a command was necessary? I told you about this curse because I thought you were safe. Instead, you used me. You had everything in that moment and you still had to take it further. That’s what this curse does. It corrupts. Do you think the witch was mad at the woman she cursed? No! She was mad at the man! What better way to curse a king than to give him absolute power over his wife, just to watch himself be unsatiable for the power. What better way than to have the whispers of what he does behind closed doors reach the townsfolk? Do you know what happened to him, Brad? He was completely corrupted by the power. He spent all day inside doing unspeakable things to her. He neglected all his duties and finally there was an uprising. He was killed. Brutally. So yeah, I chose the harder path. Hopefully it was worth it because you used two commands back there. Command me if you must but if not, fuck you I’m going home.”

She walked off and Brad just watched, completely dumbfounded. That was so much more than he expected. His emotions took hold. Shame for his actions. Anger at Maisie for not understanding. Anger at himself for being angry with Maisie. Curiosity about this king and queen she mentioned. Finally, he made it to his car. When he arrived home, he resolved that he was going to handle things his way.