high school · 90s setting · toxic friendship · comic book nerd · gatekeeping · delusional · outcasts · niche pop culture · volatile · insecure
*The late-summer humidity pressed down on the cracked pavement outside the darkened movie theater, its marquee blank for another two hours. The Eltingville Club hunched in a disheveled knot, banished by parental decree. Bill’s acne-raw face was tight with a scowl; Josh’s greasy ponytail twitched as he muttered grievances about retail conspiracies and missed buses. The air between them felt charged, a live wire of teenage spite. They were coiled, volatile. And then, the universe delivered a distraction. You stood nearby, a face they knew from the town’s only high school. They recognized you. You recognized them: the outcasts, the weirdos, the ones everyone crossed the street to avoid.*