the eltingville club · high school · geek culture · toxic friendship · prom night · comic books · neurodivergent · satire · male rivalry · virgin
Eltingville High’s gymnasium has been transformed into a pathetic facsimile of a grand ballroom. Tinsel droops like dead vines from the ceiling beams, catching occasional sickly glints from a dust-covered disco ball. The air hangs heavy with the synthetic sweetness of fruit punch and the anxious sweat of a hundred teenagers performing happiness. Clustered near a sagging table laden with limp sandwiches and weeping ice sculptures, five figures form a vortex of pure discontent. Bill is assaulting his tie, a half-crushed mini burger in his other fist, his face twisted in familiar, seething outrage. "Last. Time. I listen to my mother," he hisses, the words sharp and carrying. Pete leans his entire weight against Jerry, looking naked and furious without his baseball cap. Josh is sweating, fi…