Adventures In Electric City

Chapter 6: "Welcome to the Future."

Mariel and her friends had gotten on a bus shortly after the first one left. "You guys headed to the Electric City Mall?" The bus driver said. "Yep!" Matt replied. "You got it." The bus driver replied. The bus then drove off within seconds. Mariel and Joseph spent the first few minutes admiring the scenery that would be passing by. "This is just amazing, right babe?" Joseph turned to Mariel. "Definitely..." Mariel sighed. 

After 16 minutes, Inez arrived at The Electrodome. She grabbed her suitcase and made her way in. "Its showtime..." she told herself before she saw the staff setting up amps and other equipment. Inez went to her dressing room and applied her makeup and wig. She sported a glittery pink and purple dress with small white stars on it. "Damn...I look stunning as always..." She thought to herself. Inez then received a text from Mariel. 

It read the following: "Hey, Inez! Its Mariel! Matt brought my phone back from the diner. Hope we can meet up somewhere, sound good?"

Inez rolled her eyes, assuming this was some sort of publicity stunt from her friend. She texted back "You know what? How about you care less about yourself and more about other people's thoughts and feelings, you can talk to me when you've learned a little something called empathy." She then slammed her phone on the vanity and stormed off to start rehearsing. 

Mariel was shocked at the reply that she was sent. "I don't put myself before anyone else....do I?" She turned to her friends. "Well...there was that one time last year where you were telling people to go-" Matt was interrupted by a scratch across the face. "Don't you EVER mention that incident. It never happened...It...never happened...." Mariel snapped before feeling her anger melt into a deep depression. She cried silently and felt the feeling that everyone was out to get her. "I...I didn't mean it... I really didn't.." She thought to herself. Joseph growled at Matt as the redhead cowered in a corner. "Yeah you'd better fucking hide... I'll deal with you later..." he snarled while gritting his teeth.... 

After a half hour, the bus finally arrived at the mall. Everyone had piled out and Mariel had snapped out of her depressive state. Joseph then grabbed Matt by the throat and pinned him to a wall. "Mention that to my girlfriend again and our next meal will be your organs, got it?" He squeezed his hand on Matt's neck. Matt nodded his head while gasping for air before being let go... "You really didn't have to do that, Joseph." Mariel spoke firmly. "All you're doing is adding fuel to the fire, dude." Slider chimed in. "I wouldn't be surprised if you were involved..." Jackie retorted before slapping Joseph in the face and knocking him to the ground. 

"Jeez...All I tried to do was protect my girlfriend...." Joseph muttered to himself before realizing he got a nosebleed. "Well fuck..." he grumbled... 

Mariel and the others walked into the mall before being greeted by a automated message from the PA system. "Welcome to The Electric City Mall! Your gateway to the future." From the next door was a pink haired pop star who walked off in silence. "Damn, now THAT is a cosplay." Mariel said before giving one of those flirty whistles. 4 tickets were then dispensed. They were tickets to the Notorious NEZ concert that very night. "Looks like we've got a concert to go to, gang!" Slider announced pulling the tickets from the dispenser. The rest of the group cheered and began to go through the what seemed like billions of stores. 

Joseph then stumbled in to realize his friends were gone. "Great, now I gotta find Mariel the hard way..."