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“Richard Lipschitz!” Stephanie banged on the door for the eighty-seventh time. “If you don’t get your ass out of that bathroom, we have to leave in 30 minutes and I need to do my makeup.”
The whirring of the blow dryer stops. “But I haven’t finished with my hair yet!” He called out. Steph sighed. They'd had recently grown his hair out in a shag and redyed it to a golden blonde with red tips, and he was certain if he styled it right, he’d look Rengoku from Demon Slayer. Pete personally thought he was delusional, as a side affect of hanging out with Richie for years includes becoming immune to his… aspirations, but Steph found it funny, so she would indulge him most of the time.
But not now. Not when the only good lighting in Pete’s house was in that bathroom and she had less and less time to make sure this wing turned out right. If they were late to Ruth’s opening night, she would never forgive them.
She banged on the door. Again. “Richie! I swear I will break this door down.”
“Not my door, please!” Pete called from down the hall in his own room. “Go damage someone else’s property, thank you.”
Richie finally opened the door. “Okay, okay, how does it look? Do I look like Rengoku? Be honest.” They ran their fingers through it in anticipation. Steph truly had no idea who that was, but she didn’t want to ruin Richie’s mood (and she couldn’t risk him going back into the bathroom to try to fix it).
“You look just like him, bud, I can’t tell the difference.” Richie’s face lit up, and Steph couldn’t help but smile back.
“Yes! Let’s go, okay I’m gonna go get dressed now." He practically bounced on his feet. "My outfit is all black, it's gonna look so epic.” He dashed off down the hallway to Pete’s bedroom, and Stephanie sighed. What a nerd.
By the time she finished in the bathroom, they had to five minutes until they all needed to leave.
Grace, who looked ready to go, sat near Pete as he struggled to do his hair in the mirror the much worse lighting of the living room. Her baby pink dress, the same color as the butterfly clips in her hair, was covered partially by a bright white cardigan, and she swung her feet, donning white Mary Janes as she prattled on to Pete.
"You would have less trouble styling your hair if you cut it, Pete. You know, a more traditionally masculine haircut could definitely help you on you way to living a more godly life and keeping you out of hell!" She grinned, and Steph stifled a laugh as Pete tried to control his facial expressions, settling on on neutral smile. They were working on Grace and her… interesting relationship with religion, but they were still trying to push the point that "no, Grace, you can't enact your own will and claim it as God's righteous fury as you shove jocks down stairwells", and felt they should get that one down before they moved to dismantling gender roles and stereotypes.
"I like my hair like this," Pete replies, "Plus, if I ever cut it, Steph would kill me."
"Damn straight." She came up next to him and kissed his cheek, ignoring Grace's protests and how she covered her eyes with her hands.
"Come 'ere," Steph leaned in front of Pete, opening up a bobby pin between her teeth and affixing them to strands of hair that fell into his face. She straightened the bowtie he'd insisted on wearing, flattened out his collar, and stepped back. "Perfect. You look great, Pete."
A dopey grin spread across his face. "So do you."
Richie walked out of Pete's room, his outfit looking less like a full cosplay than Steph had expected, to her great relief.
"Looking good, Richie," Pete said, as he spun to show off his outfit. Steph nodded along appreciatively, and Richie beamed.
"Who's driving?" Steph usually would, as Pete only had a permit, Richie was terrified of the road, and Grace, ironically, was an absolute menace behind the wheel to the point no one would ride with her. But she'd gotten her keys taken away last week because she kept sneaking out.
"Stacy is going to pick us up," Richie answered, ears turning pink at the name of the girl. Richie was a lot of things, but subtle was not one of them.
"And how are things going with Miss Stacy?" Pete asked waggling his eyebrows. Richie cringed, and Steph grinned. Pete had told her on multiple occasions that he couldn't wait for Richie to be interested in someone so he could pay back all the grief he'd given him when they first got together, and ever since he'd started crushing on the cheerleader, Pete had not reneged on his promise.
Richie sputtered, as Pete shook his head. "Is the Rei body pillow jealous? Can't believe you'd cheat on her like this."
"Rei and Asuka are completely fine with our relationship, thank you!" Grace grimced, whether at the mention of Richie's anime love pillows or at the possible infidelity happening toward them is anyone's guess. "Not that there is a relationship! She's just… cool."
"Where have I heard that before?" Richie blushed profusely, and shoved Pete away as he cackled. "Anyway, uh, let's go see Ruth now, I'm getting in the car, okay bye!"
After a lot of fumbling, they made it through the ticket booth & concessions at the Starlight Theater.
It was a struggle dragging their food, drinks and the show t-shirts Richie insisted they buying before the show instead of after 'so they didn't run out', but eventually they made it down to the fourth row.
'Don't sit right up front because I'll get nervous,' Ruth had text them. 'But don't sit too far back, I want to be able to see you guys in the crowd.'
Steph and Pete sat behind Stacy & Richie, "to make sure they keep their hands to themselves" which Richie heavily protested, his face bright red. Steph & Stacy laughed at the two of them bickering like siblings.
By the time they made it to their seats, the pre-show announcement had already begun. "…place your phones on silent." The voice continued. "Tonight, Jane Doe will be played by our understudy, Ruth Fleming." The group broke into violent applause, Pete whistling with his fingers. "Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!"
Steph was so proud of her for auditioning. She'd had about seven panic attacks throughout the whole process, but she'd gotten through it. And now, she was finally on the stage.
The theater went dark. Ruth appeared in an old doll's gown, grayscale, disheveled, and headless. After a few beats of silence, her voice came out, high and forboding.
I know this dream of life is never-ending,
It goes around, and round, and round again.
You know the sun is rising while descending,
It goes on and on and never ends.
The stage lights cut to black once more, and the group went crazy, stamping their feet and shouting. "I know her!" "That's my friend!" They shouted until the group behind them asked them to quiet down, to which they acquiesced.
Masses pile out from the Starlight, rushing to meet friends, family and the show's cast. They found Ruth surrounded by other actors, beaming through her headgear. Even with the blackout contacts still in her eyes, she radiated excitement. "Ruth, you were amazing!" Steph shook her by the shoulders while Pete and Richie came up behind her & hoisted her up onto their shoulders. Ruth laughed, looking as happy as Steph had ever seen he when they put her down.
"Ruth, you did so great!" Pete said.
"Thanks!" She turned to Richie and squinted. "I can't see really well in these, are you wearing a Rengoku cosplay?"
Richie beamed at what he took as praised and Pete gave her a look saying he'd explain later.
God, Steph though, they are all such dorks.
Partaking in the hallowed, time-honored theatre kid tradition, the group along with the rest of the cast & their friends, wrecked absolute havoc on their local Denny's that night.
Grace talked animatedly about the show with Ruth, maintaining that it was very entertaining despite it's incredibly inaccurate depiction of the afterlife. She was very attached to the character Ocean, which… made sense.
"She's working incredibly hard to produce hard evidence of a good life when the entire concept is subjective. But she believes we live in a meritocracy."
"Exactly, she's kinda like Patrick Bateman, but for burnt out gifted kids. It's a cautionary tale of sorts."
"Who is Patrick Bateman?"
Probably hoping to change the subject before Ruth convinced Grace to watch American Psycho (which would certainly yield no positive results for anyone), Stacy asked Ruth how they got the headless effect in the beginning of the show, which effectively derailed the conversation, but also lead to a twenty-minute long tangent. Sacrifices have to be made.
Pete leaned against her shoulder, the effects of his nine pm sharp bedtime catching up with him. "This is way more fun than any popular kid party, huh?"
Steph took in the scene around her, the nerds she'd come to know and love yelling and arguing and throwing fries across the table at each other. A rogue tater tot hit Pete in the face, and Steph cackled.
"Absolutely."