Chapter Text
Dustin yawned as he flicked the switch on the sound board to turn on a green light. They’ve been at this for 2 hours. The poor boy hadn’t gotten a break yet. He picked up his walkie-talkie. “Mike?” he spoke into the device.
It takes a minute, but Mike replied, “What? Max and I are heading backstage. Is something wrong? Over.”
Dustin shook his head, knowing the two couldn’t see him. “Uhm, no. When do we get a break?” he asked. His eyes cast over the stage, making sure he was still listening for his cues.
It took a while for Mike to respond.
“Say over when you’re done. And we get a break after this scene, I think. Over.”
Max butted in through her own walkie-talkie, “It’s over when Act One is done. We can chill out then.”
“When’s Act One done? Over,” Mike asked
Dustin sighed, “Did you not get a script?” His eyes were still on the stage, while his hands crept over to the thick purple binder, Ms Blanch, the director had given him to mark the microphone and lighting cues.
“Those are for actors. Over,” Mike replied.
“Oh my God. Stop saying ‘over’, dork. You’re the only one doing it,” Max complained.
“Okay. Over,” Mike replied.
Dustin heard a loud smack coming from someone behind the stage’s microphone.
After a few minutes, the director told everyone to take fifteen. All of the actors replied in a cult-ish manner, “Thank you, fifteen.”
Dustin even caught himself saying it. He took off his headset and headed down to the auditorium seats, where Mike was rubbing his shoulder.
“She hits like Mike Tyson,” he whined.
“You never learn, do you?” Dustin asked, shaking his head. He sat down next to Mike. “You want Skittles? I could get some from the vending machine.”
Mike rolled his eyes, “Yeah, no. Funny joke. ‘Taste the rainbow?’ Because I’m gay?”
Dustin furrowed his eyebrows. “No… I only have enough for Skittles or those Kit-Kat bars that are already melted.”
Mike stared blankly at Dustin. “Yeah. Fine. Skittles are fine.”
Dustin got up, getting his phone out of his pocket to check his balance. While he was walking, he bumped into Max and Jane, who played Audrey. “Shit, sorry,” he apologized quickly. He looked over at the brunette girl, giving him a hard stare.
“Watch where you’re going,” Max told Dustin.
“My bad!” Dustin called out to the pair.
Dustin walked down the hall, empty as ever. He could still hear the echoes of people talking coming from the auditorium.
The posters on the walls were either drooping off the wall from one corner or ripped about halfway. The fluorescent lights shone on the green and white tiled floor, showing every shoe print that has ever stepped foot on it.
Dustin finally reached the vending machine where he used his Apple Pay to buy the Skittles.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the look that Jane gave him.
He walked back to the auditorium to see Jane and Max sitting behind Mike. Dustin sat down next to Mike. “Here,” he said, shoving the Skittles towards Mike. Dustin watched as Mike’s eyes lit up and he dumped a handful of Skittles into his palm.
Max peered over his shoulder and stole a few, giving half to Jane.
“Hey!” Mike yelled, his face scrunching up in disgust.
Dustin tuned the two out as he dug through his bag for his water bottle, realizing he left it upstairs. He was too lazy to get up and get it, so he sat.
“Can we talk about how Ms. Blanch is being so bitchy lately?” Max complained.
“No kidding,” Dustin scoffed, “Every single time after ‘Closed for Renovation,’ she tells me to change the lighting cue to downstage right, and then the next day she tells me to do upstage left.” Dustin leaned back in the squeaky auditorium chair.
“Pick a fucking side. She’s so indecisive,” he muttered.
“Especially because it’s so hard…” Dustin went on a tangent about the lighting system and how it was set up, the fact it wasn’t practical.
Dustin caught Jane staring at him from the corner of his eye and his voice trailed off. He slouched back into the chair, his face feeling hotter than the sun.
He thought—
No—
He knew that Jane was definitely judging him.
Maybe it was because he was whining.
Jane probably hated whiners.
Maybe that’s why she and Mike broke up.
Maybe she hated him because he’s friends with Mike.
But that didn’t make sense because—
Mike interrupted Dustin’s train of thought by speaking up. “Where’s Will?” he asked, scarfing down the Skittles.
Dustin couldn’t see Max’s face from behind him, but he heard an “eurgh—“ noise coming from her. He could imagine her face judging Mike’s eating habits.
“Think he’s finishing up the paint job for version 1 Audrey II,” Dustin replied, “Can’t believe it’s not finished yet. Tech Week is soon.”
“Beautiful art takes time,” Mike replied, looking over at Dustin.
“Makes sense. You were born premature, no?” Max retorted.
Jane let out a small chuckle.
Dustin’s stomach did a flip. In a bad way. Like when you watch a scary movie and get jumpscared. Or at least that’s what he thinks.
Mike turns around, the auditorium chair squeaking underneath him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Figure it out, dingus,” Max muttered, snatching more Skittles from the bag.
“Dude!” Mike whined, “Get your own!”
Mike reminded Dustin of what he assumed an annoying little brother would be like.
“What’s the fun in that?” Max replied, kicking the back of his chair.
Dustin watched as Mike rolled up the Skittles bag and put it in his pocket. Mike seemed to notice Dustin watching. “For Will,” he explained.
“Yeah, because Will’s gonna want Skittles that’s colours have melted off,” Dustin murmured.
Will entered the auditorium with “Version One Audrey II.” The one they use from the start until “Ya Never Know.” The tiny puppet version.
Dustin eyes followed Will as he walked over to Ms. Blanch to show her the puppet of Audrey II.
“He’s awesome, isn’t he?” Mike asked, in awe of his boyfriend.
“That’s one of the things we can agree on,” Max replied.
***
Another hour in the booth of hell. Dustin knows he shouldn’t complain since he signed up for this, but he’s still going to. Luckily, Will was up in the booth with him. He was finished with everything in the workshop.
Dustin’s mind kept wandering off to Jane’s disgusted look. Maybe Will knew something about it. That was his step-sister after all.
Dustin spun his swivel chair to look over at Will, sitting on the left side of him.
Will was busy trying to chip the acrylic green and yellow paint off of his jeans. It wasn’t until Dustin cleared his throat that he looked up.
Will raised an eyebrow and tilted his head slightly to the left. “What’s up?”
Dustin looked down at the stage, where Jane; Ben, the kid playing Seymour; and Jeremy, the kid playing Mr. Mushnik; were rehearsing “Closed For Renovation” for the umpteenth time.
“What’s up with Jane?” Dustin asked, his eyes looking at the girl who was currently feather dusting a shelf on the set.
“What do you mean?” Will asked, going back to chipping away the paint off his pants.
“I mean, she looks at me weird,” Dustin shuddered.
“Does not,” Will scoffed and smirked at the same time.
Dustin moved his hand to cue 18, sliding the switch up ever so slightly. He kept quiet to make sure he knew what his next cue was.
“I mean, she looked at me as if I was Spider-Man and suddenly turned into Man-Spider,” he commented.
“You’re being dramatic.” Will let out a laugh that resembled a huff, still trying to get the paint off his pants.
Dustin turned back to Will, realizing what he was doing. His eyes widened, “Dude, please don’t do that here. Ms. Blanch has been on my ass about keeping this booth clean.”
Will looked up, ever so innocently, “Sorry. My mom’ll be upset if she sees I ‘ruined’ another pair of jeans.” He placed his hands on his lap and twiddled his thumbs. His face flushed red.
Dustin noticed Will’s change in demeanor. He decided to change subjects. “Hey, you did an awesome job on all the Twoey’s.”
Will smiled. “Thanks! Max and Mike built them. I can’t take all the credit. All I do is paint and sketch out ideas.”
Dustin moved the volume up for Seymour’s mic. “Art is hard. When I got placed in art on accident sophomore year, I’m pretty sure Ms. Vasquez was pitying me because of how horrid my skills were. I don’t know how I ended up passing that class,” he half-joked.
His hand moved to Audrey’s microphone volume and turned it up, just a bit.
Will snorted, “Oh yeah! I remember you showing us that painting of a castle!”
Dustin’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “I never painted a castle. Maybe it was the horse.”
Will put his hand over his mouth, “Oh, shit! That was a horse?”
The two laughed in unison. Dustin’s stomach hurt from how they were laughing. He almost missed his cue from how hard they were laughing.
Then, Ms. Blanch called the two over to the stage through the walkie-talkie.
Dustin sighed and put his headset on its rest.
Him and Will made their way down to the stage where everyone was sitting.
Dustin noticed an open spot between Max and Jane. He glanced over at Will, hoping he’d take it. He wouldn’t be able to handle sitting next to Jane with her intense stare. Will sat over by Mike, far from Max and Jane. Dustin stared at the spot. “Shit,” he thought.
He sat down in the spot of humiliation. He could feel Jane’s gaze on him. He wanted to say something. His mouth opened, then quickly shut when Ms. Blanch began talking.
Everybody seemed to know exactly what she was about to say. Dustin noticed that everyone pretty much seemed uninterested. It was the infamous, “we don’t have a show,” speech.
Dustin shuffled uncomfortably in his spot. His shoulder gently brushed against Jane’s. He tried hard to avoid eye contact.
His heart pounded against his ribcage. Suddenly, the lights were too bright.
Everyone around him was too close, especially Jane.
He wanted to confront her, but Max was right there.
He knew Max was Jane’s protector. If anyone said anything remotely bad about Jane, Max was there to defend her.
“Sorry,” he whispered to Jane, looking down at her shoes.
Jane didn’t say anything.
He knew he messed up. Or something happened that made Jane not like him.
Maybe he’d ask Max if she knew what was up with Jane.
When Ms. Blanch was done, Dustin stood up and followed Max.
“M-Max!” he called out, waving her down.
Max spun around, at the sound of her name. “What?” she asked, annoyed.
Dustin gulped. “Can I talk to you?” He smiled awkwardly and picked at his fingers.
“What do you think you’re doing right now?” Max continued walking. Dustin followed in suit.
“I was wondering if you knew anything about Jane?”
“Not a lot you need to know about,” Max retorted as she walked into the workshop to clean up what she was previously working on.
He winced, sensing her anger. “Well, she just seems… off… specifically towards me? Do you know anything about it?” Dustin asked, standing behind Max.
Mike and Will came in a few seconds after.
Max picked up the piece of wood and looked back at Dustin. “Off? How?” She walked over to a shelf where all the salvageable wood scraps were stored.
“Like… She just stares at me.”
“Jane?” Will asked Dustin as he walked past him. He picked up his paintbrushes and the palette. He walked over to the sink that was in the far back corner of the room.
Dustin nodded. He took off his hat and placed it on one of the scuffed tables. He ran his hands through his curls and walked closer to the middle of the room so everyone could hear him.
“I thought it might be because I'm still friends with Mike, but that doesn’t make sense because she’s fine with Will dating Mike, Lucas being friends with him, and Max…” A beat, “interacts with him,” Dustin explained.
Mike walked past him to grab a broom.
“Jane and I didn’t even end things on a bad note. We’re pretty chill,” Mike added on as he swept up the sawdust.
Dustin’s eyebrows furrowed. He didn’t understand why she was being like that towards him. Did he smell? Did he say something wrong?
“Then why does she look at me like that?”
“Like what?” Mike asked, looking up from his sweeping job.
“Like I’m an unidentifiable species. Not in a good way, either.” Dustin grabbed the dustpan by the doorway for Mike.
Dustin turned to see Jane in the doorway. The two locked eyes.
“Just kill me already,” he thought.
Jane walked through the door with her backpack slung around her right shoulder.
Dustin noticed how everyone’s eyes were on him and Jane. Like they were a pair of zoo animals.
Jane looked at Dustin and then over at Will and Mike.
“What is everyone looking at?” she asked, looking down at her clothes.
Dustin cleared his throat. “Sorry. I was just— Just on my way out,” he stammered.
He smiled awkwardly at Jane. Her eyes were softer now. Softer than when he first noticed that she was staring at him.
Dustin brushed it off, heading back to the auditorium to get his backpack.
He entered the sound booth to grab the script. A soft knock came from the door. He flinched and whipped his head around.
“Yes, Ms Blanch?” He assumed it was the director, coming to give him some more comments on how he’d messed up.
To his surprise, a young brunette girl opened the door. A young brunette girl, known as Jane.
His eyes widened and his stomach did a somersault. “Hey.” He avoided eye contact by pretending to review the script. “What’s up?” He asked, barely looking up from the stupid purple binder.
Jane said something in a quiet tone that Dustin couldn’t make out. He looked up from the script into her eyes. The eyes that had been staring at him with scrutiny. They were softer now. Jane’s eyes reminded Dustin of his mom’s chocolate chip cookies. They carried an unusual amount of warmth.
”Sorry?” He asked.
Jane cleared her throat. “You forgot your hat in the workshop.” She gestured towards the green and yellow cap in her hand.
Dustin’s eyes widened, How could he be so stupid?
“Oh! Thank you, so much,” his voice full of gratitude.
Jane offered the hat to him and Dustin took it. His fingers grazed her hand. He could’ve sworn that Jane flinched at the touch.
“Camp Nowhere? Is that like a movie place?” Jane asked, her voice low as if someone was listening in.
”Oh. No. It’s a science camp I went to over the summer. It’s pretty cool, if you’re into that kind of thing, y’know?”
Jane nodded.
Dustin thought she was pretty quiet. Like a mouse. In an endearing way. Like how Will was quiet.
The situation was getting awkward. The curly haired boy decided he should end it there.
Dustin turned his back to Jane while he said, “Ok, well—“
”What does that button do?” The brunette girl interrupted.
Dustin looked up and she was suddenly next to him—like she teleported somehow. His eyes lit up like a little kid on Christmas.
”That’s the mute button. Mute’s a specific actor’s microphone, no matter where their volume slider is at.”
Jane stared at him blankly before asking, “What’s a volume slider?”
”A volume slider is what controls the volume of your guys’ mics. Let’s say… Seymour has a talking scene, I’m gonna slide this,” his hand was on the slider as he slid it up, towards the stage, “up. And if he’s singing a song like, ‘Feed Me,’ I’d slide it down a smidge because we can’t have him too loud. It would hurt the audience’s ears.”
Dustin smiled proudly before realizing he was over explaining. What if he was mansplaining? God, he hoped he didn’t sound like he was trying to belittle her. He probably did.
”That’s cool,” Jane commented, as she stared at the board, “You have a cool job.”
Heat rose to Dustin’s ears. “Yeah, well so— So do you! You’re like the— The life of the party. You are the visual everyone’s coming to see.”
Jane smiled at Dustin’s words. “Thank you. But we wouldn’t have a show without you… and the other crew members,” she smiled sweetly.
“Jane!” Will’s voice called out at the end of the hallway. He appeared in the doorway.
”Hopper’s here to pick us up,” he told his step-sister.
”Oh, alright. I’ll meet you by the door,” she smiled at Will.
Will nodded and looked at Dustin. Then back at Jane, before leaving.
”I gotta go. But, maybe next week you can show me what the other buttons do?”
Dustin gulped, “Uh— Yeah! If you’re early enough, because I know you still have to get into costume next rehearsal.”
”Cool,” Jane beamed warmly.
”Cool,” Dustin replied, his hands slightly sweaty.
Cool.
For a moment, neither of them moved. They stared at each other. Jane stared at him with less hostility. Dustin stared at her with a feeling he couldn’t describe.
The tension in the air was so thick it couldn’t even be cut with a knife. Probably something stronger, like a laser.
Jane shrugged her backpack onto her shoulder. “Bye, Dustin,” she said before turning to the door.
”Goodbye, Jane.”
He called out to her once she was in the hallway, “Parting is such sweet sorrow!”
Dustin internally cringed from how bad that joke was. Could it even be considered a joke? If it could, it was a stupid one.
Before Dustin was out of earshot, he heard a giggle come out from her.
His heart felt like a butterfly, the way it fluttered.
For once, Dustin Henderson wasn’t sure what to do with himself.