; theater eight ;

; two ;

"Now, because you decided to clock in late, which I really appreciate, by the way, you get the privilege of cleaning the theaters!" Brendon clapped mockingly at his employee, who only glared at him as a response.

"I told you why I'm late. I even showed up on time, but I had to dry off in the bathroom because it's, if you haven't fucking noticed, pouring outside! And I don't know about you, but-" Josh was cut off by his boss (not the boss, but his) kissing his teeth.

"And I told you that because you clocked in late, you have to clean the fucking theaters! Good things don't happen for no reason, Josh, and you clocked in at 12:06, which is late! So no, you don't get to tear tickets today. When your shift started and you weren't here, I put Jenna on the job! So you have to fill in for her. Get to it, we've wasted enough time as it is." Josh was about to scream.

Inhaling deeply, Josh grumbled a reluctant "Yessir," before turning on his heel and marching off, grabbing the broom and dustpan sitting by the doorframe of Brendon's office.

Seeing as it would be roughly ten minutes before 'Ant Man and the Wasp' was finished, Josh went to go sit with the other poor souls who had to deal with cleaning duty just the same.

There were three others.

Andy, the quiet ginger kid who was actually pretty nice, which Josh learned once when they geeked out over Captain America together. He was a good kid, just got walked over a bit because of how shy he was. It's a shame, really, he's quite sweet if someone would give him a chance. Josh didn't really have much of an opportunity to because of the fact that they manned different areas of the theater, but they always hang out during Superhero week. He's been working for almost as long as Josh, but the kid was so quiet that he was often overlooked, which is probably the reason he's still stuck with the same shitty position.

There was Mikey, who offered to work as a theater cleaner because "someone has to do it. It might as well be me and not some little asshole who will mess it up." Josh and Mikey were fairly good friends, they auditioned for a band called Pencey Prep around the same time when they were hosting auditions and neither of them made it. They did have an anxiety filled heart-to-heart while waiting for results, though, and Josh thought he was a pretty cool guy. They exchanged numbers and have since then, hung out a few times each month. Josh was actually planning on asking Mikey to go with him to this bowling thing, he thought it'd be an alright way to pass the time.

And to top it off, there was Dallon, who was hired a month and a half ago, and got the job at the bottom of the food chain by default, until someone new comes around. Josh had never gotten the opportunity to talk to Dallon, but he was really tall, and Josh has heard that he's funny. Mikey said once that they bonded over the bass, which Josh couldn't care less about, but it was nice nonetheless.

Regardless of any of that, Josh trudged to the table where they were seated, to which Dallon did a double take and blurted out, "You're not Jenna."

Josh grinned in surprise, raising his eyebrows as he reached over and grabbed a pair of latex gloves. As he worked his boney hands into them, he glanced up and replied, "Nope, but maybe that's a good thing."

"Good thing... how?" Again Dallon blurted out, and Josh chuckled quietly, finding the bluntness of him quite entertaining.

"I dunno, I'm not one to spread shit around. Just heard she wasn't exactly a fan favorite, with, well, anyone."

"I mean, I guess so. She was kinda annoying, but that still doesn't explain why you're here in her spot."

Josh could already feel the tension leaving his body at the conversation, as quiet chatter passed between the three guys, Andy offering a soft giggle every now and then.

Too quickly, ten minutes went by and the four of them rushed to clean up theaters three and four, both of which were released at the same time, as one was 'Ant Man and the Wasp' and the other was 'Ant Man and the Wasp' in 3D.

It was Josh and Andy in one theater and Mikey and Dallon in the other. They both swept and then grabbed their respective garbage bags, before lugging them out the back exit and into the dumpster. They returned back inside and replaced the trash bags in under fifteen minutes. They hurried back out that same exit and met up with Dallon and Mikey at the table they all shared earlier. Josh threw out his gloves, preparing to put another pair on in about twenty minutes to clean out theaters one and two.

And it continued on, just like that, for the next four hours.

Until Josh ran into something he wasn't exactly expecting.