The Misadventures of Alex Jinx

The night was finally starting to break as Alex weaved his way through the crowded streets, his lithe limbs desperately trying to find free space as his line of sight became obscured by the veritable river of bodies that stood in his way. After all tonight was an event that had been built up by his close friends Jack and Sarah for a while now: their senior year high school Prom, one which they were hoping they would never forget. There were many hours of labour and planning spent preparing the Main Hall of Westlife High for its chosen theme: An elaborate fairy tale ball. When the theming for the year had finally been announced in the weeks prior there had been an overwhelming positive response from the student body.

Well, everyone except Alex that was. He just couldn't wrap his head around it. Why would anyone in their right be excited just standing around, drinking subpar punch, and awkwardly shuffling from side-to-side like a constipated mummy, to music that not even his grandparents would find interesting? Yet here he was, rushing to meet his friends, apparently late to the suit fitting. His, almost trademark, bad luck playing up, as his bus needed to be temporarily taken out of service in order to conduct maintenance. Sometimes he felt like the universe just loved putting him into these situations to see how he would react, because as soon as he stepped off the bus to start running, a car drove past straight through a puddle at his feet, leaving his clothes caked in a thin layer of muddy water.

A few more desperate shifts to the side and and he finally saw the distinctive orange and black hair of his friends; Jack and Sarah, respectively. Their expressions portraying a unique mixture of relief and exasperation.

"You're late," Jack pronounced matter-of-factly, as he crossed his arms across his chest, "We kept your spot though. My poor cranium withstood an empty soda can directly to the skull for my trouble. I barely made it out alive".

Alex let out a brief snort in between shallow pants of breath, "Whilst I appreciate your head's brave sacrifice, I can't say that I appreciate you texting me about our fitting 15 minutes before you booked it."

Jack sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I definitely that could've been planned better. All the more reason why Sarah should have been the one to let you know," he added in transparent attempt to shift the blame of this mishap away from himself.

Sarah simply stared at the taller boy incredulously, "No no no, don't you dare try to put this all on me. I told you before I've been trying to coordinate with my pen-pal Alice for the past day now."

"The one from London?", Alex inquired.

"The very same, apparently she's going to meet us out back after our fitting's done so we can all take the limo together!"

"Great", Alex responded unenthusiastically, the idea of a preppy new girl tagging along was nearly enough to nearly make him groan.

"Ooh, is she nice?", Jack interjected, the concept of attending prom with a pretty girl serving to only sweeten the deal that would be their escapades tonight. Not to say that Sarah, wasn't pretty enough for him, because she was, but they had known each other nearly all their lives and it became clear that there was no spark between the two.

For the second time that evening Jack's comments elicited a snort from one of his friends, "Honestly I couldn't tell you, I've only seen one fuzzy picture of her and the reception wherever she lives must be terrible; but she's funny, sweet and kind so I think we will all get along just swell".

"Sweet".

"So...", Alex interjected, "Why exactly come here, and why wait until the day of prom for all this? Doesn't seem very well thought through".

"What, didn't you hear?", Sarah asked him as if he had jus committed a war crime, "Tritech unveiled this new automated shopping booth, and to celebrate all purchases and fitting for the first day are completely free. Why wouldn't we make use of this for the prom?"

Alex inhaled and spoke with a gentle firmness "Oh I don't know, maybe we could have actually been having fun instead? You know some Karaoke, a superhero film at home even. Not whatever this is."

"Hey, you asked for this. We made that deal fair and square; you said if we went to that convention then you'd come with us to the prom no questions asked. Need I remind you of what we said would happen if you made a fuss about it?"

Alex shuddered, "Yeah", he responded.

Sarah looked at both of them completely puzzled, "I don't know what that means but... hold on a moment", she slipped her hand into the pocket of her jeans to respond to her ringing phone.

"Hello-oh hey Alice, how's it going... wait what?... how come?...can't you just ask?... oh, okay... I understand, best of luck", he interspersed dialogue came to a close before she turned to her friends, a small light now vacant from her eyes.

"Let me guess, she's not coming?", Jack said, beating her to the bad news.

"Yup", Sarah replied, popping the P at the end for emphasis. "I ain't letting this stop me though, I got my best boys with me, we're going to get dressed to the nines and we are going to fucking party! Who's with me?"

"We are!", the boys responded, both with a greatly varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Roughly 10 minutes later, the trio entered the shopping booth. The ceiling was high and coated with chrome-coloured tessellating hexagons; to Alex it looked like something out of a science-fiction film. Before them, however was what they were here for: 5X10 rows of rectangular, beige-coloured steel cubicles, each equipped with a sliding steel door. According to Sarah (who took time to brush up on this new development in the world of automation beforehand), these were the Automated Style Bunkers, which with simple authentication, could have a patron dressed and ready within minutes. It was truly awe-inspiring to see just how far Tritech had gone to improve the day-to-day lives of it's consumers.

"See, you guys on the other side", Jack said before offering a thumbprint on the console in front of the door to provide authentication, to register as a new customer, and stepping inside.