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My heartbeat plays angry music on my eardrums as I burst into the erab a broom and dustpan from the usher’s closet and join Vince or G- with me

The day does not improve

“Dude, did you not take out the front trashcan from the first auditorium we cleaned?” asks Vince just minutes before my lunch break “It was completely full and Mr Lemon just bitched me out”

I slap my forehead, confused “I swear I did, but—”

Vince sighs “Where is your head at, Bobby?”

“I’ll go take out the trash,” I tell hiot, that’s all”

“I already emptied it Seriously, Bobby, you are in a totally …” Vince shakes his head “… totally weird place these past feeeks”

We’re standing in front of the door to the break room, our brooms and dustpans in hand I stare at him with a lost expression on my face, exhausted to my core, and utterly sleep-deprived It’s difficult to even form my own sentences, let alone decode Vince’s

“I’ve not been weird,” I argue back, annoyed

And then comes another opinion this already uncomfortable confrontation totally doesn’t need: “Yeah, you have been”

My ears practically flatten like a cat’s when I turn to face the smarmy face of Anthony Myers “No one asked you,” I retort to hie

Anthony puts hiainst the break roo out with you in the projectionist booth during your closing shifts”

I sigh, then glance back and forth between theuys have somethin’ you need to say to me? Just say it”

Vince, despite having literally nothing nice to say about Mr Asshole Myers here ever, nods at hi friends up into the booth I think Ji you You’re forgetting some of your basic duties, and—”

“Vince, I already said sorry about forgetting the trash”

“It isn’t just the trash,” he goes on “You keep co shifts—alhen Jiotta—”