Time for some benefits

Brad woke up to his alarm. He was amazed he slept at all with everything that happened yesterday. He had been up most of the night thinking and had come up with absolutely nothing. No big montage of studying, thinking and problem solving. Nothing but frustration. He kept wondering why he was so hesitant to use this power, especially with how Maisie had been treating him lately. He laid staring at the ceiling for a little bit then glanced at the clock. It was only 7am. Maisie liked to sleep till noon on the weekends. Remembering this, Brad had an idea, a final test to prove once and for all whether this was a prank or not.

He picked up his phone and dialed Maisie’s number, his thumb hovering over the call button. A part of him didn’t want to know. But he had to. He pressed the button and it started ringing.

He wasn’t sure if she would answer but sure enough, he heard the line and a groggy, “Hello?” over the phone.

“Maisie?” Brad asked.

“Brad? Why the fuck are you calling so early?” She asked, still half asleep.

This was perfect, Brad thought, “Maisie, from now on as soon as you wake up, you will text me a picture of yourself in the mirror. You must send it before you do anything else, starting now.”

“Brad, what the fuck? You promised!” but even as she argued, her body was moving toward the mirror.

“I promised not to fuck with your mind. Plus, consider this my final proof of reality.” He answered calmly.

“I haven’t even put a shirt on yet!” Brad heard the camera on her phone click, “This is NOT what I thought we were going to do.”

“Relax. we do need to meet up today. You’ve got explaining to do and I’ve got questions.” His phone buzzed and his eyes widened, “and I very much believe this is real now, not bad Mais, not bad at all. I’d say 3/10.” He knew she wouldn’t let that slide and he said it on purpose to lighten the mood.

“THREE?!” She yelled before remembering she was still at home. She lowered her voice, “You little shit. You know those are the best boobs you’ve ever seen, maybe the only boobs you’ve ever seen.” She started to laugh, “Alright, I see what you did there. Good job I guess. Waffle house 10:00?”

“10’s good but not waffle house” Brad replied quickly remembering the not so fun conversation from the previous night, “IHOP.”

“Fine, can you take this stupid command back first?” she asked.

“What? can’t hear you, you’re breaking up, we’ll *chrrs* talk *Chrrsss* House!” Brad laughed and hung up before she had a chance to respond.

10:15 rolled around and Brad sat in the booth playing on his phone. He wasn’t concerned about how late she was. This was normal, though not for long. It was one of the things he aimed to fix today.

Holly arrived and sat next to him quietly. She was wearing blue jeans and a long T-shirt, covering as much as she could. This wasn’t like her but Brad shrugged it off.

“Good morning, sunshine” He said.

“It’s morning alright” She responded, “so mr controller man, what questions do you have? I don’t know much more than I’ve told you, but I’ll do my best. Just please, don’t command me right now, this morning kind of fucked me up.”

“No more commands for now, but you’ll be asking me to by the end of the meal” He replied cautiously, “I got more information too.”

Maisie looked genuinely shocked, “More information? How? Who? I..I didn’t..wha”

“Maisie, calm down” Brad said without thinking.

Maisie immediately relaxed and looked at Brad speaking softly, “you said no commands”.

“Oh shit, um, Maisie, ignore the previous command and until I explicitly tell you otherwise, ignore all commands.” Brad said.

Maisie relaxed at that, “Alright, here’s everything I know. You control me now; you proved that again this morning. I had this silly hope that the curse was just made up to keep us girls in line growing up. Obviously, it wasn’t. I don’t know the history or who pissed off who or whatever, but I remember rules I was told growing up, not that they were very helpfully for us. Rule 1, you can alter me in any way you like. That means my mind and my body. You can’t control things like what I’m wearing, at least without telling me to change into it.”

“Hold on,” Brad interrupted, “What about when your clothes changed in the car?”

“That brings rule 2, so shut up and listen” She snapped back, Brad put his hands up defensively and just nodded, “Rule 2 says you can change anyone’s perception of me, including yours. My clothes didn’t change in the car; it just appeared they did to you. Finally, the most fucked up rule, the only thing you can’t order me to do is die in any way. Nothing lethal, pretty much everything else is fair game in this fucked up little curse I’m in.”

She stopped talking so Brad cut in, “alright, my turn. I got a bit more information from someone who came to see me last night. There’s more to this curse than you seem to know.”

Brad went through all the details he had learned from Holly the previous night, including if he didn’t use it, he’d end up dead and she’d end up controlled by someone far worse. When he was done he waited for Maisie to respond.

“Bullshit” She said.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re making shit up. You’re making fun of me. There’s no one who knows anything about this outside of my family.”

Brad took a moment, then said, “I know about the island plan and there’s only one person I could have heard that from, right?”

Maisie looked like she’d been hit by a bus, “Hol…Holly told you all this?”

“yeah, and look, I have a question that I want answered honestly, and if I need to command the answer, I will, but let’s try not doing that.” Brad was firm but kind.

“Shit, this doesn’t sound good but let’s see” Maisie quietly answered.

“Your sister hasn’t had anyone discover her curse yet, has she?” Brad asked.

“Brad don’t go there, don’t you fucking dare go there. Yes, someone knows already” She was a terrible liar.

“Maisie, you will obey commands again, Maisie, tell me the truth.”

“Fuck you fuck you fuck you NO!” she shrank as the restaurant started looking at her, “No, she’s been lucky.”

With that confirmation, Brad continued, “and based on that logic, I’m the first guy to find out about it, thus meaning I control her now too?”

“No, yes, maybe, shit I don’t know. The curse doesn’t let guys control their daughters, I guess the one concession the witch had to make, but there’s never been anyone who’s controlled more than 1 of us. Please don’t fuck with her.” Maisie was practically begging.

“Relax, this one is for both our good, Maisie, do not tell anyone about this new revelation unless I tell you too. We don’t need her freaking out right now.” Brad knew she would be upset at another command.

“I understand. So what’s next?”

“Well,” Brad started, “Now that you know I have to use the curse for my own survival, that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll tell you plans for how we’re going to make this benefit us later but for now… Maisie, no one in this restaurant will notice anything you do for the next 15 minutes. As far as anyone is concerned, you are just one of thousands of people the pass by uneventfully every day.”

Maisie flinched, “Brad, what are you doing?”

Brad simply continued, “Maisie, stand up and take your shirt and pants off. Leave your underwear on.”

“Seriously?!” She hissed, “I’m not wearing a bra you asshole!”

Brad just shrugged, “Nothing I haven’t seen before. And these people don’t even know you’re here.”

She stood up and methodically took off her shirt, revealing her perky breasts and removed her jeans. She was wearing pink cotton panties. She covered her chest with her arm.

“Excellent” Brad said, “Get your things, we’re going for a drive.”

Maisie started to put her shirt back on, but Brad stopped her, “Maisie, you will not redress until I tell you to. Like you said, first time seeing boobs remember? But we will make it easier for you. Maisie, no one except me will see anything out of the ordinary with you until I say otherwise.”

And with that, he paid the tab and they left. As they stepped outside, he couldn’t help but notice Maisie’s nipples getting hard. Maisie actually seemed to relax after she confirmed no one else was really seeing her like this.