Invasion of Privacy in Space

It was currently 6:32 in the morning. Randy and I were standing in front of a white metallic door to a suburban Space Chicago apartment. I had an uneasy feeling, as my brother hovered his finger over the door bell.

I grabbed his wrist, attempting to keep him from pushing it. "This is a really bad idea, Randy. I would definitely classify this as an invasion of privacy."

"Let go, little bro. I need an outside perspective on this situation." He struggled to force his index finger toward the button. I attempted to hold him back with all my strength. Unfortunately, my efforts were futile. Breaking through, he poked the doorbell. It let out a dingdong noise. We waited... Nothing.

He did it again... Still nothing.

Impatiently, he spammed it repeatedly. The sound of feet tiredly stomping toward the door echoed from the other side. There were a few clicks and the automatic door slid open, revealing Mindy.

Wearing a gray baggy sweatshirt and a pair of red plaid pajama pants, she rubbed the sleep from her tired eyes, while she tried to pat down her bed head that stood up in all directions as she stood in the doorway. "What the heck is wrong with you two? It's freaking too early for this... Wait a second! How the heck do you know where I live?"

"Your mom." Randy responded, nonchalantly.

The antenna on her head started to twitch. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

I bowed my head apologetically as I interjected. "I promise you, I had no part in this. It was all him. He brought me here against my will... N-not that I don't want to see you... B-but not in a w-weird way. I m-mean as p-professionals." My cheeks started to get red, as the second half of my statement didn't come out how I wanted.

Neither of them seemed to pay any mind to me. Mindy looked like she wanted to kill my brother, while he just sat there with a smirk.

"No, I'm completely serious. I stole my little bro's phone and DMed your mom on Spacetagram... Long story short, we hit it off and she gave me her phone number."

"..." She stood speechless.

"I have to say, judging from her recent pics, she looks younger than you-."

She hit Randy with a sudden gut punch. He held his stomach as he slumped over.

"Duck, that hurt! You should do mixed martial arts." He gasped.

"Delete my mom's number!... And yes I've dabbled in kickboxing before." She responded with an unamused glare.

"Never! Mandy and I are meant to be-."

She hit him again.

My brother coughed in pain. "Keep it up and I'll dial her right now."

Mindy pulled her hand back and sighed "Fine... I'm not really in the mood to listen to her nag me about finding a husband."

An unusual sense of happiness came over me after hearing that. I couldn't help, but smile.

"You're probably wondering why we're here." Randy said.

"Honestly, I just want to go back to bed." She didn't seem to care in the least.

Despite that, Randy still proceeded to go on. "So we were just minding our own business, trying to sell some burgers in a Space-Mart parking lot, but then this total brick head in a sushi food truck showed up..." He recounted a slightly exaggerated version of yesterday's events, painting himself as a victim. "...And I'm pretty sure he's using his Space California rolls to mind control people."

"And how does this involve me exactly?" She wondered.

"I need to consult with you on a few things."

"I'm an accountant not a food truck expert. Go bother someone else."

She attempted to close her door, but Randy put his foot in the way to prevent it from sliding shut.

"I should mention that if we lose, we have to shut our business down forever, so you can kiss your only clients goodbye, miss accountant chick."

She shook her head. "Are you stupid? You're wagering your entire business over a petty feud?"

"I'm telling you, there's something weird about that trench coat guy… You just need to come with us for a little bit." He stared at her with pleading eyes.

She let out a huff. "Fine, but this better not be long. Let me just get dressed real qui-."

"No time." He immediately ushered both her and I out of the apartment complex back to the ship.

🍔🍔🍔

"Where's the seat belt?" Mindy wondered as she sat in the passenger seat.

"It probably broke or something. If it makes you feel better, you can have this." Randy tossed her a roll of duct tape.

"No offense, but your ship's a piece of crap."

"It's not a piece of crap, it's just got character." He shot back.

"Whatever you say." She looked back in the cargo hold where I currently was.

"Why are you putting on a bicycle helmet, Ralphy?"

"I've learned my lesson the hard way. You're probably going to want to use that tape." I grabbed onto the side of the grill, which was bolted to the floor and prepared for the reoccurring bit where I get thrown around the back of our ship. At this point, I've come to accept that there's no use fighting it.

"I'm not sure if you're being serious or-."

Without even bothering to give any warning, Randy punched the gas, launching us into Space Chicago's orbit. Mindy, unfortunately, didn't take my advice about the duct tape. She was knocked out of the passenger seat. Lucky for her, she had cat-like coordination and was able to grab onto the seat's backrest. Unluckily for me though, her foot managed to catch me in the face. I lost my grip on the grill and was tossed to the back, slamming my back against the metal wall.

"Where the heck are we even going?" She asked, still hanging on with all her strength.

"No clue." Randy casually responded.

"What? Why are we flying through space then?"

"That's just our style. We need to figure out where this contest is going to be held. I figured, we'd just let the venue come to us."

"This is stupid! You could've just held it by the Space Bean in the park or something."

"No way! That ducker would be expecting that. It needs to be somewhere he can't pull any tricks."

Randy still had yet to show any proof that the trench coat guy was using some kind of underhanded tactics. From what I've seen, everything about the Sushi truck was legit. I even checked their SpaceTok account and it was just POV cooking shorts. Randy seemed to be in complete denial about this guy.

"Is your food even any good?" Mindy inquired, as she attempted to pull herself back into her seat.

Randy slammed on the brakes, nearly getting us rear ended by a white pick-up ship that was tailgating us. He brought us to a dead stop in the middle of the hyperspace highway. If I didn't grab onto the corner of our fryer, I would have been launched through the windshield. At the same time mindy managed to brace herself against the seat. A piece of paper flew out of her pocket and hit me in the face.

Randy twisted his head toward her. "My food’s the best! You're going to try it right now, accountant chick."

"Are you insane!? We're stopped in the middle of the highway!" She started to panic.

"Traffic can go around us. My burgers are more important." He went to the back and flipped on the grill.

Freaking out myself, I jumped into the driver's seat. "I'm pulling us to the side of the road before you get us killed!"

To be honest, this was my first time piloting our ship. I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing, but by some miracle I pulled us off to the shoulder, as my brother was preoccupied with his cooking.

"What the heck is wrong with you!" She harshly scolded him.

Completely unphased, with a smile on his face, he handed her a basket with a cheese burger and fries. "Order up."

She groaned. "I have no appetite after almost dying, but something tells me you're going to force me to eat this one way or another." She grabbed the burger in her hand and took a bite. There was a moment of silence as she chewed. "Shoot... It's good." She nodded her head. "I don't really eat a lot of red meat, but I'll admit that was pretty tasty."

"Told you!" Randy exclaimed.

I held out the piece of paper that had fallen out of Mindy's pocket. "You dropped this."

She took it from me. "Oh, thank you. I would have died if I lost that."

Randy noisily budded in trying to stare at it over her shoulder. "What's that?"

"I'd appreciate it if you minded your own business, but if you must know it's a ticket for Worgan Mallen's upcoming concert."

I suddenly felt a bit anxious. "O-oh, a-are you going w-with anyone?" I couldn't help, but wonder. Slightly terrified that she was going to answer that she was going with a guy, I held my breath.

She shrugged. "I'm just going by myself."

I audibly gasped with a sigh of relief.

Randy burst out laughing. "Who goes to a concert by themselves?"

She shot him a dirty look. "I really don't care what you say, dumbass. I'll have you know that I'm a huge Worgan Mallen fan. Maybe if I'm lucky, his eyes will meet mine in the crowd and he'll propose to me right then and there."

Those words stabbed me in the stomach like a knife. Sure Worgan Mallen was a huge country music star and all, but I had my own charms.

Randy suddenly snapped his fingers as a light bulb went off in his head. "That's it! We'll hold the contest at this concert. Country music fans are always tailgating in parking lots and I doubt that's the type of crowd that eats sushi."

Mindy protested, "No way, I don't need you ruining this concert for me. I've been looking forward to this for a long time."

"We'll do it beforehand in the parking lot. That's when all the tailgaters are out anyway. You can enjoy your concert afterwards."

I had to admit, this was a decent plan Randy had… There may have also been the possibility that I had an ulterior motive to tag along with Mindy to the concert afterwards, but who was to say…

"Wait a second, who said I was helping with the competition?" She continued to object.

Randy shot her puppy dog eyes in order to guilt trip her. "But if we lose, we'll be out of the job and you'll lose your only clients."

“You already said that earlier. That isn’t going to work twi-.”

Randy turned the screen of my phone around and flashed her mom’s contact info.

She put her hand over her face and shook her head, as she let out a reluctant sigh, "Fine, but if I miss out on this concert, I'm dropping you as clients and I swear I'll slash your tires."

Randy chuckled as he obnoxiously gave her a pat on the back. "That sounds like something a country music artist would write a song about."

After managing to coerce Mindy into helping us, Randy jumped back into the driver's seat and piloted us to Space Nashville to scope out the venue in advance. After that, he messaged his mortal enemy, the trench coat guy, the details about where their epic showdown would take place. This coming Friday night, which was just three days away, the fate of our business lay in the balance.