Chapter Text
His shift has just started when a small army of jocks come bumbling into the theater. Bryce leads them of course and somehow manages to balance pretending to be embarrassed by them with somewhat guiding them. Clay pretends a few of them don’t smell slightly of weed or beer because he doesn't get paid enough to deal with that...as long as they throw up in the toilets and flush if it comes to that. On the bright side, Justin is bringing up the rear and the other boy smiles at him brightly, cheerfully tells Monty to eat a dick when the boy insinuates something is going on between them, and thankfully doesn’t get into a fist fight.
That could have been the end of all of this except it isn’t. Hannah is also on shift and Justin gives him a meaningful look when she starts talking to him. The moron spends a startlingly long time deliberating on snacks even though Clay knows he’s going to get sour patch kids and quietly promises to ‘help him out’. He rolls his eyes because he’s at work and doesn’t have time for this and Justin lets it go to catch up to his group.
His peace lasts about twenty minutes, the group arrived as the movie starts so it’s twenty minutes into the runtime of the two and a half hour movie before Justin appears at the snack counter again. Clay just looks at him for a moment.
“I don’t like horror movies.”
Simple enough explanation except. “Why did you come?”
He shrugs and pops a gummy into his mouth before offering the package to Clay.
“Where’s Hannah?”
“Cleaning theater four.”
“Good, how long will she be there?” He glances at the clock, she just went in so probably ten minutes, maybe fifteen if it’s really bad but Justin has a gleam in his eye that he really doesn’t like.
“Five? Probably about that.” What damage can Justin do in five minutes?
His face lights up like a Christmas tree and Clay tries to contain his groan. “Perfect, that’s enough time for the ‘Justin Foley Crash Course in Love’! Get out your notebooks and get ready!”
Clay gives him a baleful look and reminds him, “You know I’m at work.”
The grin gets broader, “Of course, workplace romances are common Clay, no need to be embra-”
“I mean I have to actually work.” He doesn’t know where Justin is going with that and he doesn’t want to know.
“Obviously.” Justin smile changes to pure mischief as he glances around the empty theater. “So many people here to help.”
Clay rolls his eyes but he can’t actually think of something to deny that with.
“Alright let’s get started, how do you talk to Hannah?”
“How do I-Like a person Justin.”
Apparently that isn’t the right thing to say if the look on Justin’s face is anything to go by. “Alright pretend I’m Hannah. How do you start a conversation with me?”
He opens his mouth almost thinking of doing the ‘exercise’ before realizing it’s stupid. “How am I supposed to pretend you’re Hannah? She feminine.”
Justin doesn’t take offense, instead he smirks and clears his throat. “Hi Clay, tell me I’m pretty.” He pitches his voice higher and it’s alarmingly convincing as a lady but not as Hannah.
“The voice is wrong, disturbing but wrong. Needs to be a little lower and less conceited.”
“More like this? Clay, I need your big, thick,-”
Clay throws popcorn at him which gets Justin laughing. “Brain. I was going to say brain.”
“Sure and I-”
“Helmet! Can you grab me another bottle of the industrial strength cleaner? We’re all out!”
“Sure, in a sec.”
He leaves the counter and gives Justin a look. “I will be gone less than three minutes, if I come back and find the snacks destroyed, I’ll tell Zach you said his sister is the more intimidating Dempsey.”
Justin pales a little and Clay hurries to the supply closet, grabs the bottle Hannah needs, and gives it to her.
“Bad one?”
She rolls her eyes, “Some kid wet the chair. I guess we should start enforcing that rated M thing. I’m not cleaning up anymore pee.”
He makes a face and doesn’t continue that conversation.
Justin’s decided not to eat everything but is stacking the popcorn buckets in a pyramid. Clay rolls his eyes but Justin looks pretty proud of himself. He punches the other boy’s arm but apologizes when Justin hisses. The other boy just gives him a grin and shrugs and goes back to giving Clay dating advice but concludes that Clay is apparently ‘hopeless’.
“I could coach you!” His whole face suddenly lights up.
“What?”
“Yeah look Hannah’s coming back I’ll hide and you’ll try to ask her out and I’ll help!”
“That’s-”
“She’s coming!”
Clay looks down the hall to see Hannah and by the time he turns back, Justin’s done a pretty good job of making himself scarce. Hannah rejoins him in the snack booth and sighs, “Well that’s twenty minutes I’m not getting back.”
“Not really, it’s more like four hours you aren’t getting back.”
She smiles a little, “Yeah.”
They lapse into silence, comfortable, not the awkward kind when she does or says something he doesn’t know how to reply to. Justin sort of appears at some point and Clay isn’t sure where he was before but he’s making motions telling Clay to do something. He’s standing where Hannah can’t see him, at least not for the moment and Clay resists the urge to roll his eyes.
“So there’s going to be an awesome meteor shower next week.”
Hannah looks up at him interested, Justin looks horrified, he prefers Hannah’s expression.
“Oh and where will this shower be taking place?”
“About fifty million kilometres from us, Earth is at its closest to Mars which means its closest to the asteroid belt and what we’ll be seeing, the actual viewing season is between October and November but next week will be the best time for us to see it from here. This is the Orionids shower-” He sees Justin over Hannah’s shoulder frantically making a slashing movement across his throat. He looks back at Hannah who looks confused and is raising her eyebrow.
He clears his throat and opens his mouth to talk again. “They’re viewable with the naked eye, that means we don’t need a telescope to see them and as long as we get clear weather it should be really good and they’ll be really impressive and how many other people do you think will be able to say they stayed up all night to see it?”
Justin looks pained and Hannah looks amused and maybe slightly confused as well. “I don’t know helmet but I don’t think too many people will care. And who is this ‘we’ you keep talking about?”
“I mean I was just thinking that watching it alone might belonleyandthat’sobviousbut-”
Justin’s making a motion, taking deep breaths the messages is obvious, he takes one and then another, the younger boy nods approvingly and mouths ‘ask her’. He takes another deep breath and then says “Would you like to watch it with me?”
Hannah hums a smirk gracing her face and he’s aware that his palms are sweaty and he’s wringing his hands together and he thinks maybe his knees are shaking a little bit. “I don’t know, would it just be us? Or would it be us and Justin?”
He blinks about a dozen times and Justin grins sheepishly. “Why would- Justin-what?”
“Well I assumed he would be invited since he’s behind me.”
The younger boy approaches with a laugh announcing himself. “How’d you know?”
“Clay’s bad at eye contact but he usually looks at the ground not over my shoulder and he wasn’t being as...himself as usual. You came in with half the baseball team so it made sense.”
Justin offers a shrug that’s completely unapologetic. “I wasn’t invited, just you and this...stud.” Clay realizes they’re both looking at him and the back of his neck is sweating a little, his hands are clenched in fists, his face is probably bright red.
She hums, “I don’t know. I’ve never cared too much about space before.”
“Don’t toy with him like that.” While Hannah had been teasing, Justin sounded less amused.
Hannah hears it too and gives Justin a look before turning her attention to him. “I’d love to see this meteor shower with you Clay. It sounds like a lot of fun.”
He lets out a breath and he hadn’t been aware he was holding it.
Justin claps him on the back and says, “Congrats, I hope you two have fun. I should probably go before they miss me.”
The boy is at the theater door before Clay remembers, “You hate horror movies.”
Justin gives him a grin that doesn’t say much and waves before disappearing into the room.
He and Hannah iron out the details for their date. Even thinking the word fills him butterflies and he doesn’t remember the last time he felt so happy.
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He’s still happy several hours later when he’s home and feels his phone buzzing. He fishes it out of his pocket and answers.
“Hello?”
“Clay? Is your mom home?”
“Tony?” He pulls the phone from his ear and looks down at the screen a smiling picture of the older boy stares back at him.
“Is she home?” He doesn’t like the tone of the other boys voice, it’s wild, angry, almost vicious.
“Yea, she’s downstairs-”
“Go down and find her and put me on speaker phone I need to talk to both of you.”
He’s moving, out of his room and half way down but he can’t stop himself from asking, “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you when your with your mother.”
He finds both her and Dad in the kitchen and motions her over to the table where he holds the phone between them and puts it on speaker.
“Okay she’s here.” Her expression is really confused and so is Dad’s, and they’re looking at him like he has the answers, in another situation it might be funny.
“Mrs. Jensen?”
“Tony?”
“Yes, are you sitting?”
“No? Tony what’s-”
“You should probably sit down.” He sounds calmer now, no longer like he might snap. Actually his voice is eerily calm and Clay’s only getting more nervous as he and Mom take seats.
“When I get off the phone with you I need you to go down to St. John’s. Justin’s being taken there right now. I don’t know much else besides that but-”
“What do you mean Justin is being taken to the hospital and why do we need to get down there?” Mom cuts him off, she looks angry, sounds it too.
“I mean what I said, Justin is in the hospital, or is on the way there. I don’t know the details but they can’t find Amber Foley-”
“Who is ‘they’?”
“The police.”
“Tony-” He can’t help that he sounds anxious because he is.”
“Just please come, it’ll be easier to explain in person.”
“We’ll be there in twenty.” Mom’s made up her mind it seems.
“Good come into the regular waiting room.” The line goes dead and that’s it. They don’t bother to talk, shoes are put on, keys are grabbed, and they’re out the door in record time.