It was an evening Jon wished he could forget. Full of laughing, giggling, hands poking and prodding and tugging straps and strips of soft, stretchy fabric. Trying on bikini after bikini after bikini, and other outfits for good measure, for what seemed like hours. Jon had played along, lest he be kicked to the curb as an outsider. Keeping up the facade was the only way he'd ever get to the original Sarah - if he could manage to find her.
The fashion show wound its way into pajamas and gossip, and Jon finally managed to make an exit. His own exhaustion made it seem like less of an excuse, but he was completely lost when the four doppelgangers dove into detailed recollections from Sarah's personal history. He had made it to the door of his bedroom when they started talking about the size of Biff's manhood. It would have made him cringe, but suddenly it made him wonder. Did they not realize that Biff was no more? That he was off in his own house, likely having the exact same conversation with his own former family?
It was something still nagging the back of Jon's mind as he stood in front of the mirror the next morning. In panties, a flimsy t-shirt, and the messy bun he'd thrown his hair into to sleep. He looked down at the pink bikini dangling from his fingers. He knew exactly how it would fit on his brand new body - he had seen it from every possible angle the night before - and each angle was perfect. This was the bikini they'd all agreed to wear today.
He stripped out of his panties and was about to pull on the bikini bottoms when he stopped. Why was he doing this? He was pushing himself so hard to be more and more like everyone else, that he hadn't been thinking. Now he was about to put on an identical outfit without a second thought. Was his mind changing to be like theirs, without him even noticing? He worried that slipping on this pink bikini could be the point of no return - if he went along with this, like he'd gone along with everything yesterday, how much of himself would he have left?
He had to maintain some level of individuality. Even if that word was nearly extinct. He still had to go to the beach today - that's where everybody, including Original Sarah, were going to be. But he could at least make himself stand out in some small way.
He threw the pink bikini to the ground and walked to the dresser. He felt energized. He was making decisions for himself. He pulled open the drawer and looked at the countless bikinis inside. The black one with fringe on top? No. The one with the purple flowers? No. Aha! His hand darted into the drawer quickly and emerged with the brightest, neon green shock of fabric he'd ever seen. Yes, it was still a bikini. But it was different from the others. It would help him stand out, be an individual.
Plus, it wasn't pink. As he put it on, he noticed that the nearly day-glo fabric made his skin look even more tan. He took a seat at the vanity and brushed out his hair, leaving a few bedhead curls for a more casual, beachy look, then grabbed a pair of wedge sandals from his closet before heading downstairs for a bowl of cereal. And stopped in his tracks when he passed through the living room and saw the whole family wearing the... Exact. Same. Neon. Bikini.
Jon felt like he could pass out. "So ah... green, then?" he managed to say.
"Yeah," one of them said.
"I wanted something that would stand out, ya know," said another.
No, that was what Jon had wanted. Wasn't it? There was no way that everyone had picked a different matching bikini and Jon just happened to pluck the same one out at random. Had the others changed their mind, and the thoughts wormed their way into his own brain, where he thought he was actually being clever and original? His heart was sinking fast. That couldn't be! He still knew who he was, what he had to do to get Sarah to try and fix all this. He couldn't be thinking their thoughts. MAYBE, just maybe, his original clever idea had made its way into the Sarah Collective somehow. Maybe the link that made them all so like-minded was the key for Jon to start exerting some influence.
Or maybe he was losing his mind. He had to find out.
