The Red Planet

Chapter 1

"I'm one vending-machine-disappointment away from a full-blown tantrum. All I wanted was to get a soda before the end of my break, but the stupid vending machine won't work." Andrew complained to me.

"Maybe you could...kick it?" I said.

I knew how much Andrew relied on his caffeine fix, but our break was almost over, and I didn't want our boss to yell at us for staying on our break too long. Andrew threw his leg back and thrusted it at the body of the vending machine. His kick created a loud clang that caused our boss Herb to come outside.

Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

"What's all the commotion about? Your break was over two minutes ago. If you want to keep your jobs, then I suggest y'all better get yourselves in here." Herb said.

Andrew sighed. He and I went inside the convenience store. Andrew took his place behind the cash register and I went to the back of the store to retrieve the new stock that had come in. When I got outside my coworker Liam was already unloading packages inside the store.

After we put everything inside, Liam left me to shelve everything. I didn't mind though. I found stocking the aisle kind of calming in a way. While I was restocking the candy aisle, my crush Imani walked into the store. I knew she always went straight to the candy aisle, so I decided to move on to the toiletries aisle. It didn't matter that I went into another aisle because Imani saw me anyway. The aisles were a good five inches shorter than me.

Stupid shelves.

"Hi, Quinn." She said in her light, melodic voice.

"H-hi," I said.

"Are you free today?"

"U-uh, yeah. Why?"

My palms started to sweat. I hated it when my hands got sweaty, and they were always sweaty around Imani. I wiped my hands on my pants.

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime."

I swallowed. "Uh...s-sure. Yeah."

"Great, I'll text you the details," Imani said,

I nodded and watched as she grabbed a Twix from the shelf, paid for it, and left the store.

Andrew looked at me and asked, "Did Imani just ask you on a date?"

Did she?

"Oh crap...she did. She did! Imani asked me on a date!" My adrenaline was through the roof.

"See I told you she was into you!" Andrew shouted. Herb shot us a look and he said, "Sorry."

When our boss went back into his office Andrew winked at me and gave me an 'ok' sign.

. . .

When I got home after work Imani texted me the details of our date. She wanted us to meet at our local arcade, Astral Arcade, at seven. Just the thought of going on a date with Imani made my heart beat rapidly. I hoped that my heart wouldn't burst out of my chest on the actual date.

Do I need to dress casually, or should I dress up nicely?

I had two outfits laid out.

The first outfit: a white dress shirt, black dress pants, and black loafers.

The second outfit: a white T-shirt, a forest green sweater, khaki pants, and black Converse.