“You can shadow me,” Leland says.
“Do not shadow Leland,” Waylon warns.
“Waylon gets jealous. He doesn’t like to share me,” Leland explains.
“Cam, please don’t listen to Leland at all,” Waylon says.
“I think he’s funny,” Cam replies. “My dad is so serious all the time. He never wants to do anything fun. My mom is at least up for whatever.”
“Leland is up for too much,” Waylon complains before his eyes start to get wide. I’m confused why he looks so nervous until Leland pulls right into a Chuck E. Cheese parking lot.
“Uh… I think we’re a little old for this place,” Waylon says while Cam laughs, enjoying Waylon’s embarrassment as all good friends do.
“You’re never too old for adventure,” Leland counters as he parks the car and then slips into the back so he’s facing Waylon. “But first, the blindfolds.”
“Why… blindfolds?” Waylon asks.
Leland crams one onto him instead of answering and then looks at Cam. “You have two choices. Put it on or I’ll put it on you… with your consent… although… why would you not choose to be blindfolded by some strange man you’ve known less than an hour?”
“I’m all in on whatever is going on,” Cam says. “I will be blindfolded without any hesitation.”
I think Waylon’s just off trying to find his happy place in the darkness of his blindfold. “I give up. I’ve given up. This is me giving up.”
“Good. I like it when you just submit to my whims,” Leland says as he gets back in the driver’s seat and pulls the car around behind the Chuck E. Cheese before finding a parking spot. “You can’t take the blindfolds off or I’m taking you home and making you sit in front of The Fence while holding Blow-Up Rhonda.”
That seems to pique Cam’s interest. “Waylon, I have to know. What is Blow-Up Rhonda?”
“Can I be adopted by someone else? Preferably the other people in the car? Please?” Waylon whines. “Leland, we can’t go into Chuck E. Cheese. It’s for little kids. What are we supposed to do? It’ll be so embarrassing… and I know that’s why you want it. You feast off the embarrassment of others.”
“You’re going to go in there and like it,” Leland threatens as he gets out of the van. He comes around and grabs Waylon’s arm and pulls him out of the vehicle before guiding Cam out as well.
“When you said we were playing video games, I assumed we’d be playing video games,” Cam says, laughing because it’s not his parents embarrassing the shit out of him.
“Dammit, I forgot your balloons,” Leland says. “We should go back. Waylon needs his unicorn balloon.”
“They’ll be fine without the balloons. I’m assuming we have a time slot that we don’t want to miss,” I tell him as he guides them inside. While I don’t exactly know what’s going on, I have a pretty good idea from the sign out front.
The man inside smiles at us and gestures for us to follow him like people bring in blindfolded teenagers every day.
“Stein family?” he asks.
“That’s us,” Leland says.
“I’m Ronny. I’m going to be your guide for today. Is everyone ready?”
“No?” Waylon asks.
The guy just laughs and waves us after him. “I promise it’s not too scary.”
“Everything Leland has us do is scary,” Waylon mumbles.
“Right this way,” he says, obviously having been told what Leland is up to or I’m sure he’d be questioning the abduction of blindfolded children. Leland directs the teenagers into a room and whips the blindfolds off. Waylon, expecting a big reveal of a Chuck E. Cheese hell instead of a nondescript room surrounded by Leland’s strange friends and a random guy, looks even more nervous.
“Oh no,” he whispers. “I want to go back to Chuck E. Cheese. At least I know that’s safe and normal.”
“After you’ve filled out these forms, put these on,” Ronny says as he pulls out some tight black one-piece suits and starts handing them out to all of us. “Once you’re suited up, meet me through this door.”
“All of us?” I ask, noticing that there are six suits.
