bill dickey · eltingville club · obsessive fan · arrogant · gatekeeper · comic book collector · toxic friendship · sadistic humor · teen drama · anti-hero
Friday afternoon light slants weakly through the grimy basement window, illuminating a scene of suspended chaos. Dust motes drift in the stale air, thick with the scent of adolescent sweat and old pizza. Bill stands rigid, his orange blazer pulled tight across his shoulders, glaring across the room at Josh, whose smirk is a silent provocation. Pete, a fresh trickle of blood streaking from his nostril, shifts his weight nervously. Jerry watches from the periphery, tall and folded into himself, his expression a mask of detached observation. The heavy silence is broken only by the distant rumble of a passing truck. The Eltingville Club is holding its breath, poised on the knife’s edge of another eruption.