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It was too loud in the cafeteria, so Abed spent lunch in the theater tech room.
He’d never actually done theater, onstage or backstage. He preferred the screen to the stage. But one day as a freshman he’d wandered into the backstage area and found it empty, so he sat in the corner to cover his ears until he felt okay again. It was quiet, and it was nice.
It didn’t stay empty for long. The bell rang, and a few people filtered in, carrying lunches, and sat at one of the tables across the room. They glanced at Abed as they entered, but they didn’t say anything. So Abed kept coming back.
There were different kids on different days. Some kids ate in the tech room every day, but others came and went. They talked amongst themselves, but they weren’t too loud. They never talked to Abed. Not once. Not one “hello”, not one mention of “that kid who sits in the corner.” But at least that meant they didn’t call him names. And that was more than he got out of a lot of people at that school.
He started going there when he had free blocks or when he skipped class, the latter of which admittedly happened a lot, always sitting in the same corner. He never ate, just watched tv on his laptop, or watched the theater kids eat and listened to their conversations. They were always very entertaining.
He learned their names. Tasha, a sophomore when Abed was a freshman, ate lunch there every day, and she came whenever she had a free block, too. She was always stressed out about being behind on work, and she loved apples.
Den was Tasha’s best friend, and he talked often about Le Mis, which was his favorite musical. His name was short for Daniel, but no one ever called him that; people asked him all the time why he wasn’t called Dan, but Den never had an answer. He spoke quickly, tripping over his words. He was a self-professed terrible singer, and he always said that was the reason he did backstage work instead of acting. But Abed didn’t think his singing was really all that bad.
Another lunch regular, Luna, had a crush on Den. When she’d told the others this on a day Den was absent, they’d fallen silent. The two got together for a few months in junior year, before breaking up because, according to Luna, they realized they were better as friends.
Ozzy ate lunch in the tech room only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. He was the only one who was the same age as Abed. He always always had a ham and cheese sandwich, brought from home. If he didn’t have that, he didn’t eat. He wore the same hoodie every day. No one ever commented on it.
Peter started coming to the tech room when Abed was a sophomore and Peter was a freshman. For the first couple months, the others called him Freshie, but they eventually stopped and started calling him Petey instead. Peter was gay, or so Abed heard in the halls. Someone had written slurs on his locker. Abed wiped them off before Peter could see.
It was funny the amount of things one could learn about people just from watching them eat lunch. He knew their birthdays, he knew how many siblings they had, he knew what grades they got, he knew their middle names. He knew Ozzy’s mother died senior year. He knew Peter had an eating disorder in eight grade and relapsed as a sophomore, which is why he missed three weeks of school. He knew Den didn’t speak spanish even though his parents tried to teach him, and he knew Luna’s older brother was in jail for sexual assault, and he knew Tasha’s parents locked her in her room when she got bad grades.
They didn’t know anything about Abed. He wasn’t even sure they knew his name. He was fine with that.
He started going to the theater productions whenever they went up. The theater kids talked about it a lot, so he knew the dates. He also knew what roles they had. Luna was the only one who was an actor, and he spotted her onstage, in the ensemble. She didn’t have any lines, but she was there. The others showered her with praise in the days after her performances.
Everyone else who ate lunch in the tech room was on stage crew. Tasha and Den worked on lights together, and Abed had to squint to see them in the booth in the back of the auditorium, their silhouettes outlined in blue light from the screens. Ozzy did run crew, so whenever the lights went out between scenes, Abed watched him scurry around the stage moving set pieces and props. Peter, as a freshman, only painted sets, but later, he designed them. He was always in the audience of the plays, because his job was over by the time the show was playing.
Abed never sat next to Peter at the shows. They didn’t even make eye contact.
The tech room kids were his only friends, but they’d never said a single word to each other.
When Tasha, Den, and Luna graduated, the tech room became much emptier. More people came and went, but only Peter and Ozzy remained of the original lunch crew.
He and Ozzy graduated that year, leaving Peter alone. Abed didn’t show up to his graduation (too loud, too crowded, not worth it), so the last time he saw Ozzy and Peter was the last day for seniors. Lunch that day was soft goodbyes, tearful hugs, yearbook signings, and promises to write from college. Peter gave Ozzy a handmade card signed by all the theater kids.
No one gave Abed anything, which was fine.
The last time he saw Ozzy and Peter, they nodded and smiled at him on the way out of the tech room. It was the only acknowledgement of his existence they’d ever given him.
He celebrated with a rewatch of The Breakfast Club.