Peer Review, Paralogue – Fear and Loathing at McDonald's

by Tritium

"You know, when I agreed to hack your phone so it would take infrared pictures, I didn't have this in mind." Brook was sitting on the sidewalk next to the ashtray that stood sentry next to the main entrance to the fast food restaurant. She had her laptop with her, and she was leaching the Wi-Fi. Brook's sister sat mirroring Brook on the other side of the door, pretending to be texting, but was actually taking pictures of people as they entered or exited the store; which normally would not be a problem, except her phone was now capable of seeing through certain types of clothing. They were both smoking far too much.

"What, you actually thought I would be taking artsy nature shots with a camera phone? You are naive." The older girl smirked a little while taking a picture of a family of four. The father's clothing was opaque to the camera, but the mother and their daughters showed up nude, with a ghostly outline of where their clothes were. Brook's sister saved this shot. "I thought your slut, I mean shadow, I mean girlfriend was going to join us." She did not sound disappointed that Sam could not make it.

"She is doing another interview." Brook responded rather coldly to her sister; she did not like it when people spoke poorly of Sam.

"You mean she's fucking the interviewer."

"No, she is talking to the interviewer." Brook was even colder.

"Right." Brook's sister butted out her cigarette and put her phone away for a moment; not because she had sated her voyeuristic urges, but because a police interceptor had pulled into the drive-thru. "So what did you two do last night?"

"We had an orgy. You should have been there; sixty, no a hundred people fucked our brains out." Brook became more annoyed at her sister's line of questioning.

"OK, so you talked all night."

"Yeah. And that's all we did."

Brook's sister let that stand for a while. When the cop car left the parking lot she resumed taking pictures. Her first shot after resumption was that of a little girl and her grandmother. The girl was in a light sun dress that was completely transparent to the camera. The picture of the little girl, who couldn't have been more than seven, clearly showed the outline of her tiny tight sex, and the slender lines of her legs and ass. She immediately emailed the picture to Brook. This was somewhat of a ritual; she would send any pictures of girls to Brook, while maintaining the entire archive for herself. Brook was more amused by the pictures than she was titillated, and made no effort to stop the flow of images. "So did you ask her?"

"Ask her what?"

"Come on, it's been the only thing on your mind for the past two weeks." Brook's sister lit another cigarette.

"Oh that. We talked about it."

"What did she say?"

"She didn't say anything. I didn't ask her, just...talked about it, in concept." Brook was avoiding a direct answer.

"You need to grow a pair..."

"I'm a girl, I don't have a pair to grow." Brook took a long drag from her cigarette, and used the last remaining embers to light another.

"You know what I mean. Just ask her to marry you. It's not like mom will let you go through with it, so it doesn't even matter if she says yes or no."

"And that will accomplish what?"

"You will know that she will. And when your sixteen, you can run across state lines and she wont be able to stop you from getting married."

"But she will be able to stop me from going to college, getting a decent job, and supporting the family I would be making." Brook had already thought about this. Brook thought too much.

"Then convince mom to let you get married. Get Sam's mom to convince her, or something. Take some action."

Brook closed her laptop. "Mom once tried to send me to rehab to cure me of my 'gay'. There is no convincing that woman of anything."

Brook's sister thought silently for a moment, but did not miss a chance to take a picture of a couple going into the restaurant. "You do have another parent, ya know."

"Great... Just what I needed; dad involved in my love life. Tell me again why mom and dad split?"

"That's not the point. All you need is for him to sign some piece of paper to let you get married. He will do that just to piss mom off, with the side benefit of redeeming himself with us."

"I'll think about it." Brook returned her attention to her laptop. "She hasn't even given me an answer yet."