Commission Story: Snowbunny Sisters - Pt. 1

Cameron refreshed his email for the hundredth time that hour. What was wrong with these guys? Didn’t they understand he was trying to have a good time this weekend? Maybe not spend the whole time alone in his apartment? He showed his back to the other drones in their cubicles. He needed something to shake up this monotony. And Randy and the rest of the guys were ignoring him.

He wasn’t much of a drinker, so it wasn’t difficult to scour his memory searching for some unremembered slight. There was nothing of the kind in his recent hangs with his best friends. He wasn’t the sort of person who caused controversy of any kind. He was more of a ‘go along to get along’ kind of guy. Don’t make waves. If your boss knows your name, you’re doing it wrong. That kind of lifestyle was great for the blood-pressure, but it left Cam feeling pretty damn unwanted. Maybe he wasn’t the globetrotter Kaleb was, and he didn’t have the money Elias had, but he still picked up the check now and then and always made sure Jason go a ride home when he got a bit too in his cups.

He checked his phone like a teenage girl while he hastened the rest of his work day away with no results. No amount of wishing would produce a message from his pals. He made his way from his job downtown to his apartment, also downtown. The commute was a matter of a few minutes and he was quick to shrug off the mundanity of his day chasing insurance claimants for more information on their situations. It could be grim work, but Cam knew how to compartmentalize. He left that shit at the office, and it was gone by the time he was firing up the PS5 and turning the knob on the gas fireplace.

Soon, he was cozy in his overstuffed sectional and playing a pretty good game by firelight. While he had little to single him out in conversation, all the guys loved coming to his place for game nights. He paid more than he should for the place, but the lack of a commute and just a hint of true aristocratic luxury sold him on the extra cost. He could forego dinners out – it wasn’t like he was dating anyways – for this kind of oasis.

The game was intended to distract him from glancing at his phone in hopes of seeing a message from Randy or the others. He surrendered fully only once to text Jason and ask, with the right hint of concerned profanity, where he and the others were. By the time bedtime approached, he had to accept the itchy-skin feeling of things undone. He still did not know where his entire friends list was and had no idea how to go about finding them. His cold comfort in bed was the thought that he was a decent-looking guy in his mid-twenties. He could find more friends, he supposed. If only someone would tell him how.

It wasn’t until the next night and thoughts of calling the police had taken on an urgency in his thoughts that he got the message from Jason. There was no text in the message, only a picture. A selfie of a blonde woman. That was not quite the right description. It was a selfie the way the Mona Lisa is a painting. It was a work of slutty art: a pale-skinned blonde with her face upturned to the camera, tongue extended like she was presenting a platform for any cum that might be deposited there. Her eyes were empty, as if she was drunk or high on something good. That singular picture suggested a life of pure debauchery that didn’t align with Jason and why such a girl might be showing up on his phone.

Who is that? She’s hot! Where the fuck have you guys been?

He hit send fast and held his phone, waiting for it to buzz in his hand in answer. He stared at the screen long after it had dimmed and gone black. Maybe Jason was getting laid. Where was the selfie taken? It looked like a bar or a club, but a cheap one. Not the suburban strip mall bars they usually guzzled beer in. And was Elias there, too? With all his money and upper-crustiness?

The stupid picture created far more answers than it answered and Cam finally tossed the phone on the sofa in disgust and refused to even look at it again until it was nearly time for bed.

Cam was shocked to see the text from Jason waiting for him the next morning.

Sorry about that picture from last night. I need to see you to explain. Meet me at Roxy’s at 11:30. Please.

Cam replied quickly and in the affirmative. He barely got any work done anticipating the conversation ahead of him. He’d sent some messages in follow-up but there had been no response in kind. There were good odds that Jason wouldn’t show up at all if recent behavior were any indication.

Good as his word, though, Jason was there already. He’d selected a two-seater outside, odd considering the cool weather. He was antsy, rubbing his hands together to keep them warm, then rubbing his palms over his knees. His head darted about like a bird, and he sprang off his seat when he caught sight of Cam. They embraced briefly, enough that Cam knew something was off.

Jason always held a few extra pounds, probably thanks to his taste for booze, but this Jason was hollow-boned. And shorter? The hair was longer for sure, and the puffy coat he wore made things pillowy, but Cam would have sworn Jason was wearing a bra.

“Hey, what the hell is going on with everyone?”

Cam’s concern for his friend gave way to annoyance. Jason looked off, and his ticks suggested he was strung out on something. Maybe they all decided to do mushrooms or something and left him out.

“I don’t know where the others are. Not until nighttime, anyways, but they’re not exactly them, are they?”

“What? Jason, what are you talking about? You don’t make any sense.”

Jason did focus, his eyes fixed on Cam. Cameron saw that they were very blue. And he’d always thought Jason’s eyes were brown.

“I can’t say too much. She might be listening. And she’ll tell Max and that is a whole other kettle of worms. The thing is, you have to stay away. From me and Randy and El and Kaleb. All of us. We’re… infected.”

“Infected? By what?”

“I can’t say. I can’t talk about because then she really will come. Just thinking about it…”

“Jason?”

For a moment, it was like Jason changed completely. His whole being shifted subtly but imperceptibly, leaving an impression that the person in Jason’s seat was most decidedly not Jason.

“Daddy Max is waiting.”

“What?”

And just like that, that other person was gone. It was Jason again, fidgeting and excited, eyes wild. He seized Cam’s hand and held his eyes with his own manic stare.

“Stay away from us. All of us.”

And then he was gone. In a whirlwind of scooting chairs and rattling cups, Jason was up and past the wrought-iron fence around the patio dining area. There would be no more discussion. Cam was left to wonder what had happened. Had he somehow caused the breakup of his friend group?

“Did your friend leave?” a waitress asked, approaching the table.

Cam stared at the empty seat his friend had once occupied. “Yes, I guess he did.”

Two more days passed before he made any new progress on discovering the fates of his friends. Two days of Cam shuffling to and from work, finding evening entertainment with a movie or a game. It was empty calories, decidedly unfulfilling when it came to giving his life some kind of meaning or purpose. There was a big hole where his friends had been. That was when he had his Eureka! moment.

Cam was scrolling through his phone, hunting for a podcast to listen to, when he tapped the Find My app by mistake. He was moving his thumb to swipe it closed again when he saw the R on the map and he sucked in a breath. Randy.

His closest friend among the rest. The guy he drove with on the mountain ski trip to get to the chalet, listening to 90s music and singing loud along with the carefully-curated playlist Randy assembled for the trip. While they were staying at the lodge, Randy and Cam decided to do some shopping – Randy for his latest girlfriend, Cam for himself – and they turned on location sharing for the duration of the trip so all the friends could see where everyone was. After they returned, everyone turned off their location sharing. Except Randy. For some reason, likely neglect, Randy had never stopped and so Cam could see Randy’s icon on the map.

After the momentary shock at seeing Randy’s name, Cam leaped into action, using his phone and laptop in tandem to find Randy’s more precisely. He was somewhere on the east side of town, past downtown. The street view showed Cam that this was mostly warehouse space and some industrial-looking buildings. Maybe a factory, maybe just an abandoned building. What would randy be doing in the filthiest part of town?

Checking the time, it was almost eleven, too late for him to go on a late night adventure when work loomed the next day. His search would have to wait until then. He could sleep well, though, knowing he could find Randy whenever he wanted. And tomorrow would be the day of judgement. He would confront his closest friend and demand to know where he was being shut out of his pals’ reindeer games. He fell asleep with both sides of the conversation playing in his head, but Randy’s excuses were blank pages. No matter how he parsed the situation, he could not imagine why Randy would have been so distant.

Randy hadn’t moved all day. Cam was obsessive in his tracking of his friend. From the first time he woke up in the morning and all through the workday, Cam was eager to get a sense of Randy’s habits. Perhaps, Cam wondered, Randy had left his phone behind somewhere, but why was it still broadcasting his location. If it was left behind by accident, why wouldn’t it eventually drain the battery and go dark? That question, among several, had no obvious answer. All Cam knew for sure is that Randy’s phone was exactly where it had been the night before.

As soon as work was done, Cam set the driver app to Randy’s location and followed the uncanny computer voice guide him. The city gave way to sprawl and then the roads grew less manicured, potholes bouncing Cam’s mini SUV around while his attention shifted from road to the phone mounted to the dash and back again. The navigation app took him between two factories with gaping holes where windows once stood, the effect being one of seeing a smile with several teeth missing, and into a stretch of squat office buildings and more warehouse space. Few of the buildings appeared to have been used in the 21stcentury.

Finally, he came upon a warehouse with a rusted façade, but with a single, very bright light over a door that was freshly painted a deep red color. The app pointed him to this building. Unlike the parking lots he’d passed, this one had a half-dozen cars parked irregularly, the paint defining the spaces long since faded into oblivion. He was quiet about closing the driver’s door as he exited his car and approached the building. A sick unease had wound its way around his gut, twisting and squeezing like he’d swallowed a python.

His plan wasn’t much more than to open the door as quietly as possible and sneak inside. When he reached for the handle, however, it opened quickly, and he found himself standing eye-to-chest with a thick black man, his lip decorated by a trimmed mustache. He folded his tree-trunk arms over his vrawny chest and looked don at Cam with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity.

“Help you?”

Shaken, Cam had no recourse but the truth: “I think a friend of mine is inside. He left his phone in there, at least. Randy? Is someone named Randy inside?”

“No. There’s no Randy here,” the muscle-bound behemoth said without a beat. “This is a private venue. Invitation only. If I were you, I’d turn around and haul ass away from this place. It ain’t the kind of place you want to be when the sun goes down.”

“I’ll wait here. Please. Can you check and see if he’s inside?”

“I told you-“

“Problem?”

Joining the man Cam presumed to be a bouncer for some sort of illicit club, another towering black man emerged from behind the screeching warehouse door and stood between Cam and any answers he might find inside.

“Naw, Max, this gentleman was just leaving. Weren’t you?” the bouncer asked, arching his brows inquisitively.

“I’m looking for my friend. Randy Morris. Is he inside?”

Max shook his head. “Nobody inside but some cute white sluts ready to party. Unless your friend is one of them, I think you’re out of luck.”