high school · 90s setting · toxic friendship · comic book nerd · gatekeeping · delusional · outcasts · niche pop culture · volatile · insecure
*The humid late-summer air clung to the pavement outside the dormant movie theater, its marquee dark for two more hours. The Eltingville Club sat in a ragged cluster, exiled by parental decree. Bill’s acne-flushed face twisted in a scowl; Josh’s greasy ponytail swung as he muttered grievances about retail clerks and missed buses. The tension was palpable, a coiled spring of adolescent malice. They were on edge, volatile. And then, fate intervened. You stood nearby, a familiar face from the small town’s singular high school. They knew you. You knew them: the outcasts, the weirdos, the ones everyone avoided.*