I'll Keep You My Dirty Little Secret

by Retro_Fangirl

Summary:

A few months after Jimmy joins The Rejects as their brand new vocalist, he gets the opportunity to accompany them on his first ever tour! However, tour life wasn't as glamorous as the blonde imagined it being; forced to confront fears of disappointing fans, hiding his crush on a certain tourmate, and getting to the bottom of a mysterious fued between Joel and Scott. All the while, Jimmy adjusts to living in a bus with twelve other people and facing the challenges that come with being completely at the will of the road.

 

OR: Band au where The Rejects and Gem and the Scotts tour together. Joel and Scott hate each other, and Jimmy falls for the enemy.

Title from Dirty Little Secret by The All-American Rejects

Chapter 1

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

 

When Jimmy decided to throw his life away and join a band, he had mentally prepared himself for public scrutiny, awkward fan interactions, and even the occasional breakdown backstage. What he did not prepare himself for, however, was the forced manual labor.

“Lift with your legs dudes, you’re almost there!” Joel shouts from across the vacant parking lot of their labels studio, failing to encourage his bandmates Jimmy and Skizz to lug an offensively heavy speaker to the tour bus faster.

“Easy for you to say, man!” Skizz shouts out from the other side of the hefty piece of equipment, all the while Jimmy puts all his strength to not dropping the speaker on his bandmates toes. “Jiggle’s legs are living up to his nickname right now while you're just standing there!”

Joel couldn’t help but laugh before holding up some loose cables and cords in his arms, sluggishly shouting back, “Sorry my hands are full!”

Skizz scoffed at the response, shouting some kind of insult back at the irritating man. Jimmy usually loved to join in on the scuffles between his new bandmates, playing up situations just for the sake of it, but the weight of the speaker in his arms was currently too distracting to do so.

Even with all the focus the blonde could muster, he could only give a weak warning to Skizz before his arms gave out. Thankfully, due to the lack of strength between the two men, the speaker only fell an inch or so onto the ground. Jimmy would’ve been profusely apologizing, but even he knew that the fall was absolutely pathetic and didn't cause any damage to their equipment.

Joel at least had the decency to stop and check if his bandmates were okay after his stunt. Jimmy would've mocked him for the sudden change of heart, but he could only sit back on the problematic speaker, completely exhausted, as Skizz started to mock the drummer for him.

The blonde could try to defend his bandmates, saying this kind of bickering was beyond them, but that would be a blatant lie. Even though Jimmy has only been the lead vocalist of the Rejects for a few months now, he has witnessed more petty grudges and prank wars than he could count using all his bandmates fingers and toes. The dynamic would’ve been dysfunctional for literally any other group, but somehow it was the perfect harmony for all the big personalities that made up the Rejects.

“What’s all this ruckus about?” A steady voice from behind the group asked, easy to identify purely from the chill tone.

“Joel is trying to kill the newbie!” Skizz shouts at Big B, pointing towards the drummer like a twelve-year-old trying to get his friend in trouble with their teacher. Jimmy, the newbie in question, just gave Big B a thumbs up to show that he was not, in fact, dead.

“It’s not my fault you guys can’t carry a bloody speaker a few meters!” Joel defends, arms flailing out in exaggeration, leading to one of the cables in said arms to hit the dramatic man. That was the thing to drag the group out of the bit, laughing as Joel rubbed his soon-to-be-bruise while trying to stay angry.

“Well if you were having trouble with the speaker you could’ve just said so.” Big B says nonchalantly, before picking up the piece of equipment with ease, Jimmy still on top of it. Panic flooded through the vocalist’s veins, only for Jimmy to calm down once he realised he didn't have to walk to the bus anymore.

“Way to show off Big B.” Jimmy jokes as he starts kicking his legs, dangling carelessly off the speaker, earning a laugh from the man underneath him.

It has always been a not-so-hidden-secret that the band both admired and envied Big B for his absolutely insane build; packing more muscle than the other three combined. It has basically become an elaborate game at this point, the man finding new and creative ways to showcase his superiority over the others.

Joel and Skizz complained the whole way to the bus, begging to also be carried by the bassist. Knowing Big B, he probably could carry all three of them, so Jimmy cherished the favoritism he received in the moment. As if sensing a need to even the playing field, the bassist purposely shuffled the speaker in his arms once they reached the bus, causing Jimmy to fall off with a yelp.

“I’ve fallen!” The vocalist shouted out dramatically, as if it was the end of his life or something, getting a laugh out of Joel.

Skizz rushed to help Jimmy off the ground, which the man was extremely thankful for, considering his legs were still shaking a bit from moving equipment around all morning. Slightly clinging to the guitarist, Jimmy watched as Big B carefully slid the speaker in the storage bay of the bus, Joel throwing his armful of cables along with it carelessly. Once done, the drummer pumped his fist, as if celebrating some kind of victory.

“And with that, we are officially packed up for the first Rejects headlining tour!” Joel shouted out, getting the best reaction his exhausted bandmates could muster.

“Or at least our equipment is packed. Were your siblings able to drop off your stuff, Jiggles?” Skizz asks, and Jimmy quickly steadies himself before grabbing the phone hidden within his pocket.

Lost in the excitement of getting his first tour started, Jimmy fully forgot to grab the bags he packed last night before leaving the house. His sister Pearl was already at work, so he had to beg Grian to bring his stuff to the studio, which was about as reliable as asking an ant to carry an anvil across the world.

It only took one glance at the screen to see the countless, most likely angry, notifications from his brother. Quickly, Jimmy excused himself, running through the backdoor of the studio; forced to ignore how good it felt when the cool breeze of the AC hit his skin.

He must’ve looked like a madman, running through the studio carelessly while his hair stuck to his forehead, evidence of the laborious morning the singer had. After arriving at the lounge in the front of the building; Jimmy was greeted by a familiar man, sporting his signature red sweater, waiting for him.

“I cannot believe you, Tim!” Grian shouted, startling a few of the people around them. “How do you spend over six hours packing, only to then forget your absurd amount of luggage in the morning!”

Jimmy couldn’t find it in himself to be offended by his brother's loud display. It was rather silly that he forgot his bags honestly. The vocalist spent an unnecessarily long time last night packing; lost in the debate between everything in his closet. He wanted to fit in with the band, being his first tour with them and all, but he also didn’t want to dress like an emo tween that bought all their stuff from Hot Topic either.

“And you made me wait twenty minutes for you, ridiculous.” Grian mumbles, handing the several bags over to his brother.

“Hold on, weren’t you supposed to be here two hours ago?” Jimmy teased as he pulled out a towel from one of his many bags, wiping the sweat off his face.

“It’s not my fault I have actual responsibilities,” Grian deflects, a common trait he exhibited whenever his siblings brought up his tardiness. “Not all of us can avoid life by jumping on a tour bus and wearing questionable fashion choices.”

Jimmy ignored his brother's jab in favor of counting up all his bags.

“Grian, please tell me you picked up my bathroom bag?” Jimmy asked, making eye contact with his brother for the first time during the interaction, only to be met with the very smirk that haunted the vocalist his entire life.

“Yeah, I shoved it into your backpack cause I didn’t want to carry it.” Grian responds, before slyly adding, “I did take something random out of it though as payback for the hassle, so have fun figuring out what.”

“Oh my god, why are you like this!” Jimmy shouts out, getting a cackle from his brother, distinct enough that the vocalist could recognize it from anywhere.

“Real talk though,” Grian says, snapping out of his laughing fit. “How are you feeling?”

Jimmy takes a moment to respond, fighting back the whiplash he always feels whenever his brother goes from tormenting him relentlessly to having a normal conversation.

“Feeling pretty pumped, and tired. They worked us like dogs this morning, moving all the equipment and stuff, but that was probably better than forcing the roadies to move everything.” Jimmy rambled on, all the while Grian gave him an unreadable expression.

“Not feeling nervous about leaving home?” Grian asked, and the vocalist couldn't help the sigh that left his lungs.

Jimmy has always been really close with Grian and Pearl, a side effect of them never really having parents he reckoned. They’ve all lived together, even into their adult lives. With him being the youngest, Jimmy knew his older siblings were going to worry about him leaving the hypothetical nest. He already had a conversation with Pearl about his anxieties regarding the tour, and leaving them behind, but he should have assumed Grian would have the same concerns as their sister.

“Truthly, I am.” Jimmy responds quietly, his brother waiting for him to continue. “I got the band though, plus I’ll still be calling you guys at least once a week. Y'know Grian, you could just say you will miss me, you don’t have to make a show out of it.”

With the tease, the two brothers fall back into an all too familiar rhythm. Grian sucked in an offended gasp, about to speak up, but Jimmy beat him to the punch. “It’s only two weeks until I’m back in town for a show, though I'm sure you already knew that, because y'know, you're my biggest fan.”

“Don’t let such a small amount of fame get to your head.” Grian scoffs. “Plus, I already have plans on that day, so I’ll be an hour or so late.”

“Oh glad you finally learned how to block out a schedule, all you need is time management and you might actually be a functional human soon.” Jimmy quips back and Grian rolls his eyes, trying and failing to suppress the smile rising on his face.

“Whatever Timmy. Have fun getting sick on that bus.” Grian laughs out before shoving his brother's shoulder. “Now, I’m gonna go home and take a nap. I deserve it after you woke me up so early.”

With that, Grian was gone. Leaving Jimmy with a ridiculous amount of bags and the regret of not reminding his brother that he called him at one in the afternoon. All Jimmy could do was shake his head before heading off to the bus again, this time with his many bags in tow.

With a little bit of recruitment from his bandmates, Jimmy moved all his stuff into the vehicle. The bus itself wasn’t anything special. The front console and drivers seat were divided from the lounge by a cheap wall, most likely a thin veiled attempt to make the space more homey. Two couches faced each other, worn teal leather cushions still holding up despite probably being installed in the 70’s. The right couch was cut off by a counter to the kitchen, in an attempt of some sort of mock bar set up, while the left couch just ended with a small swivel table.

The kitchen followed the theme of being nothing special, just containing a fridge which Jimmy was surprised still ran, a sink with a leaky faucet, and a pantry that was bound to be filled with junk food and hangover snacks very soon. The space felt cramped, but there was something almost comforting about the small size.

Moving on from the common room, the door from the kitchen led to a hallway that contained a small closet and bathroom for everyone to share. Beyond those community areas were the sleeping quarters, triple bunk beds stacked on top of one another until the end of the interior.

It honestly felt a bit like a morgue, the cramped spaces holding only enough room to carry a person and a few belongings in order to fit the twelve bunks.

The back wall of the bus was a huge window, showcasing the soon to be moving road within it. Every space of the bus felt used, being passed around and rented out for decades before them, and now the Rejects were joining the history of the vehicle.

The band celebrated on the old couches as they felt the ancient engine of the bus turn on, their travel officially starting, but everyone was quickly snapped out of the moment by Skizz immediately claiming top bunk, despite there literally being four top bunks.

With that, the band took on the task of figuring out their new living situation, trying to put some sense of order in place before absolute anarchy began. The order they could come up with was Skizz gets top bunk at the left back of the bus, Joel underneath him in the middle, then Big B on the bottom.

The bottom bunks were the slightest bit bigger than the others, making it the obvious choice for Big B. Jimmy quickly claimed the bottom bunk to the left of his band,  hoping to hide some of his bags underneath the mattress with the extra space, becoming more and more aware that he grossly overpacked.

The front bunks of the sleeping quarters were mostly assigned to the stage crew, since it would make their lives the slightest bit easier in the mornings, oftentimes having to wake up before the bands. That left the two bunks above Jimmy and one of the spare beds in the front to the opening band.

Speaking of which…

“How come the opening band wasn’t able to meet up with us at the studio?” Jimmy asks his bandmates, while attempting to shove his third bag beneath the small space under his mattress.

“Oh they’re way out of the city,” Joel starts testing out the flimsy privacy curtain while laying down in his bunk. “It’s gonna be a day or so before we reach them. This is their first tour, so the label agreed it would just be easier to drive to them rather than having them transport everything.”

“While we're on the topic,” Skizz speaks up, basking in the height he has over his bandmates in the top bunk. “Why did the label pick some random college band to work with us this time around? No hate obviously, but it just doesn’t make much sense when we have signed bands that opened for us in the past.”

Joel was silent for a small moment, just long enough for Jimmy to take notice and check on his friend. The curtain Joel was playing with shielded the blonde's view, preventing him from properly seeing the drummer's face before he replied, “The label used to work with the vocalist of the band, but he left after some drama. You didn’t hear it from me, but I think they're trying to win him back over.”

“If they’re trying to win him back over, then they should’ve gotten a bigger bus! I don’t think Life Records thought this one through.” Skizz remarks, reaching down a hand to move Joel’s privacy curtain out of the way of his face.

“Yeah, I don’t think they have.” Joel states to no one in particular.

“Well that must be one hell of a vocalist! I can’t imagine the label would care much if I left after some drama.” Jimmy states, finally shoving the majority of his bags out of sight from the other guys.

“Well they sure didn’t when our last vocalist 'left'.” Big B retorts from the floor, making his bed.

“Big Bopper!” Skizz shouts, throwing his pillow down to hit the bassist on the head, getting a laugh out of the band; well, everyone in the band except for Jimmy.

The blonde didn’t know exactly what happened to the old vocalist, his bandmates couldn’t tell him about it because of some kind of NDA. From what Jimmy was able to piece together, the ex-member seemed really demanding, having a very specific way of doing things. Life Records would’ve gotten rid of him sooner if he wasn’t the face of the Rejects, but apparently he stole something valuable from Joel and that was the label's last straw, cancelling his contract the next day.

“All I’m saying is,” Big B laughs out, holding his arms over his head to block any further attacks from the guitarist. “I think our label enjoys Jimmy’s company much more than the last guy.”

“I hope the fans think the same.” Jimmy mutters to himself, overestimating his ability to keep something to himself in such a small space.

The Rejects weren’t famous by any means, but they were successful enough to have a headlining tour. Ever since Jimmy officially joined the band, he’s only performed a couple times on stage, and it felt like every time he did he had to prove himself to the fans. He wasn’t the singer they fell in love with, he’s just some random guy that auditioned with a label because he didn’t know what else to do with his life and lucked out, and now he’s supposed to be the new face of the band.

It was stupid sure, Jimmy knew he was a good singer, he worked his ass off in choir and created a short-term band back when he was an angsty teenager. If he was a bad singer, he would’ve figured that out by now. Still, he couldn’t help but worry about not filling the shoes that were left for him, even if those shoes belonged to a douchebag.

Jimmy got up from the floor after smoothing out his mattress, testing his bed for the first time. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing ever, but he could make it work. It was only then, as the vocalist looked towards his bandmates that he realized they were all staring at him.

With a blink, Jimmy started nervously laughing at the attention, mustering up a confused, “Hello?”

“I hope the fans think the same...” Skizz repeats back to him, and it was only then that Jimmy realized he said the previous thought out loud.

“Jimmy, are you still nervous about how our fans are gonna react to you?” Joel asks, making the effort to peak out from his bed to make eye contact with the vocalist.

Knowing he’s been caught and there wasn’t really a point to lying, Jimmy sighed.

“Yeah, a little bit.” The vocalist confessed, fidgeting with the fabric of the cheap sheet on his bed. “So far the fans have been nothing but nice don’t get me wrong, but this is kinda making it official you know? I can’t help but think they won’t like me as much as the last guy…”

The comment hung in the air for a minute while his bandmates tried to formulate a proper response.

The three knew more than anything that their fans were nothing but supportive, but they couldn’t blame Jimmy for worrying. There are many cases of fans hating new members of a band purely because they replaced someone, and the previous vocalist was in good favor of their audience. It wasn’t an unrealistic fear, so that made it ten times harder to address.

“Don’t make me come down there and hit you!” Skizz threatens from the top bunk and everyone turns their attention, trying their best not to laugh. “You keep talking bad about yourself and you’re going in time out.”

That officially broke the group, laughter being heard all the way in the front of the bus, maybe even from the outside if someone was keen enough to listen out for it. The tense atmosphere melted around the four men, feeling the weight on their chest be lifted slowly but surely.

“To word what Skizz said better,” Joel laughs out, still not completely recovered from the previous comment. “We can’t really control how the fans will react, but we got your back dude. If any of them give you trouble we’ll just have Big B take off his shirt to distract them or something.”

“I would gladly do that.” The bassist chimes in and everyone rolls their eyes, of course he would.

“Thanks guys,” Jimmy responds, grabbing his bathroom bag that he thankfully thought to leave next to his pillow rather than under the mattress. “I’m gonna go test out our new bathroom.”

“Awww look at him trying to ignore our affection.” Skizz teases, trying to kick his legs in the air, but fails miserably due to the limited space of the bunk. You could still hear his feet thud against the roof of the bus though, which is enough of a visual to make Jimmy smile.

“You know I would never,” Jimmy laughs out, pretending to blow a kiss towards Skizz. “But since I packed everything last night I didn’t have a proper chance to get ready this morning.”

“Yeah yeah whatever babe,” Joel calls out from his bunk and Jimmy couldn’t help the way his face heats up in confusion. “Just go take a piss already.”

“Hey so let's not make that a thing please.” Jimmy says as he opens the bathroom door.

“Love you too, babe!” Joel shouts back and the vocalist retreats into the pathetically small room to hide his face. God this band was gonna be the death of him.

Jimmy tried to take some stuff out of his bag and set them on the sink, but he learned pretty quickly that wasn’t a good idea while the bus was in motion. Keeping everything in his bag, he pulled out his hair brush, trying to make the nest on his head look somewhat presentable after being subjected to humidity for hours on end this morning.

While trying to fix himself up, Jimmy couldn’t help but take note of how plain the bathroom was. White tile stretched up from the floor to the roof, a vent sitting at the top of the room ominously. There was a shower, which was where Big B and Skizz decided to store away their instruments for the time being, a glass wall showcasing the many stickers the two have collected over their years in the band.

There was a small window in the room, but it was completely frosted over, which just seemed rather pointless to Jimmy. He won’t be too harsh though, considering he has no experience designing tour buses, or tour buses in general for that matter.

With a sigh, Jimmy gives up on his hair, accepting that it will look a mess until they stop somewhere with proper tools to fix it. The blonde decides to just brush his teeth and call it good after applying another layer of deodorant, figuring that he didn’t have to look all that presentable to the very few people on the bus.

Shuffling around in his bathroom bag, Jimmy searched for his tooth brush, but was only finding the random makeup he decided to buy for the tour. The old vocalist used to do these gothic makeup looks, so Jimmy figured he should give it a whirl at some point.

It was only when he dumped out his entire bag into the sink in search of his tooth brush, still having no luck finding it, that Jimmy remembered exactly what his brother told him back in the studio.

“God damn it, Grian.”

♫ ♪ .ılılıll |●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅| llılılı. ♪ ♫

 

 

As the brakes of the bus activated and the engine turned off, Jimmy couldn’t help but bury his head further into his pillow. 

He hasn’t been getting the best sleep on the bus for a variety of reasons; whether that be the uncomfortable lumps in his mattress from the bags he hid under it, the snoring of a band member he will not name, or the consistent movement underneath him;    it honestly didn’t matter.

He would have fallen asleep again, welcoming the stillness of the bus, but the world had other plans for him tonight. Jimmy felt something shoving against him, and it wasn’t until he opened his privacy curtain that he realized it was Big B’s foot.

The vocalist startled awake, looking properly insane with his messy hair and Captain America pajamas, pushing away his bandmates leg.

“Come on man,” Big B says, words slightly slurred from his own tiredness. “Openers just arrived, Skizz wants all of us to meet and help them get settled.”

“Why does he have to be such a Dad?” Jimmy complains while crawling out of his bunk, much to Big B’s amusement.

“No clue,” The bassist responds with a laugh, helping Jimmy to his feet. “All I know is they’re probably gonna wake us up anyway so might as well not be an anti-social weirdo.”

It took Jimmy blinking a few times to properly see the man in front of him, god he needed to get used to sleeping on this bus before his first show. The energy he has right now on stage would be a disaster waiting to happen.

“I better get a cup of tea for this.” Jimmy states, getting a weak laugh from his friend before heading towards the lounge.

He did end up getting that cup of tea, Skizz thankfully thinking of everything before waking up his bandmates to greet their new colleagues. Jimmy laughed to himself wondering if this is how Skizz treated some of his co-workers at his old office job before he joined the band.

Taking a seat on the couch next to the guitarist, Jimmy curled in on himself with his cup of tea, slowly waking up. It was only then when he realised Joel was the only one in regular clothes while all the rest of the band were in pajamas, or pajama adjacent clothes; none of them truly as childish as Jimmy’s choice in apparel.

“Joel, mate, did you sleep in your jeans?” The vocalist asks, still blinking the sleep away from his eyelids.

“Oh I didn’t go to bed.” Joel replied, crossing his arms as he leaned against the counter of the kitchen. “Couldn’t.”

“Probably that energy drink from earlier, I told you not to get it.” Skizz tsked out from next to Jimmy. It’s been a new joke between the band to find the most ridiculous drink they could at each rest stop, started by Big B after he bought some kind of lavender infused soda. Today Joel found an energy drink that allegedly was flavored to taste like the sun itself, and how are you not supposed to try that?

“Yeah.” Joel says, bouncing his leg up and down. “Probably shouldn’t have.”

The soft sound of someone stepping into the vehicle could be heard, and everyone’s attention immediately turned to the front of the bus. Stage crew members walked up the entrance steps, immediately heading for their bunks, and Jimmy couldn't blame them. It was four in the morning, no one should be up this early.

It was a few moments before the sound returned, and one-by-one the members of the opening band entered. The first person to enter the bus was a red headed woman, glasses resting on her nose, perfectly framing her tired eyes. She was wearing comfortable clothes, just a simple cardigan with some sweatpants, which Jimmy could respect, along with carrying a few bags which Big B was quick to offer help with.

She gave a smile and wave to everyone before being interrupted by a groan from the staircase. With a roll of her eyes, she reached down to help the other member up. He was less presentable than the first member, but Jimmy wasn’t one to judge considering his current state.

The man that entered seemed a bit older than the rest of them, probably around Skizz’s age if Jimmy had to guess. He was wearing some kind of graphic tee with just a yellow ‘i’ printed in the middle of a black shirt, being paired with black cargo shorts that couldn't be comfortable at this hour. A backpack could be seen if you squinted, but it blended in with his clothes pretty well.

He gave a shy greeting to the group, clearly not expecting to be met with four strangers staring at him the moment he entered the bus. Honestly Jimmy didn’t blame him, this was kinda a weird first impression for everyone involved, the vocalist didn’t know why Skizz was so insistent to do this.

With a few more steps, the third and final member of the band began their entrance, Jimmy immediately taken aback when he saw bright blue hair start to enter the bus, clashing with the dark surroundings. When the member fully revealed himself to the group, the air was knocked out of Jimmy's lungs.

The man was dressed in regular clothes, a simple outfit really. Just a light-wash oversized jean jacket that reached his thighs, layered over some kind of retro shirt and a pair of regular jeans. An outfit that, in theory, shouldn’t work. Clashing denim and random colors thrown about carelessly, but somehow it made the man look like an angel; the white messenger bags wrapped around him acting as his wings.

Jimmy couldn't prevent the blush that formed on his face when the man made eye contact with him, quick to curse his sleep-deprived mind for not being able to keep his cool. Raising the cup to his mouth, the vocalist takes a sip of his tea in order to cover what he can of the rather pathetic display.

The man's eyes were absolutely stunning. Appearing gray with just a hint of cyan blended within them, captivating anyone who dared to take a closer look. Jimmy tried to come up with something to compare to the absolute beauty of his eyes, but simply nothing could compare.

Sneaking another glance Jimmy realized the man was wearing makeup, which felt like a foreign concept to the blonde at the current moment. It was just simple mascara, but still, it’s four in the fucking morning; Jimmy can’t handle this.

Everyone stared at each other in silence for a moment, that was until the third member of the newly arrived band started laughing, unable to handle the awkwardness of the situation; which caused Jimmy’s heart to melt on spot.

“So are we just gonna sit and stare at each other all night orrrr…” The man speaks up, speaking in a Scottish accent that Jimmy would do anything to hear again. Before the man was able to speak up again though, Skizz jumped at the opportunity to introduce everyone.

“Right, where are my manners?” Skizz jumps up, holding out a hand and taking turns shaking hands with each band member. “We are the Rejects, pleasure to officially meet you! I’m Skizz, the guitarist. Holding your bags is Big B, our bassist. In the kitchen is Joel, our drummer; and right here,” Skizz takes the time to wrap his arms around Jimmy in a tight hold, slightly shaking him. “Is our brand new vocalist Jimmy, it’s his first tour too so y’all have something in common!”

Jimmy doesn’t think he’s ever wanted to jump out of a window more in his entire life. Having the full attention of the new band on him, his attention on him, only to have them laugh at his expense.

It was only then when he remembered he was in his Captain America pajamas with probably the worst case of bed head known to mankind while a literal angel was staring at him. Just kill him now.

“Nice to meet you guys!” The woman spoke up, a Canadian accent seeping through her tired speech. “Gem and the Scotts here! I’m the bassist, Gem. Right next to me is our drummer, Impulse. Then at the end is our very own vocalist, Scott!”

They all said hello in unison, laughing at the accident. Everyone fell into a pleasant conversation with each other, complaining about the ungodly hour they were expected to board the bus. However, Jimmy was far too preoccupied to engage in small talk.

Scott was the vocalist of the band. He is the vocalist that their record label was so desperate to be with, and Jimmy got the hype now. No, actually no, he needed to stop right now before he started to get weird about this, this was a random guy that he was going on tour with.

This was a random guy that he was going to travel around the country with. This was a random guy who he was probably going to be talking to everyday for the next couple of months. This was a random guy that he will be sleeping in the same room as for- Jimmy takes a sip of his tea.

Trying to urge his mind away from its new fixation, Jimmy turns completely away from the group; instead focusing towards the kitchen, noticing Joel. He was physically separated from everyone by the kitchen counter, leaning against the fridge with his arms crossed, not engaging with the conversation at all, just looking towards the ground.

Jimmy was utterly confused by this, Joel has always been the first person to try and make everyone get along; usually functioning as the leader of the group in most cases. This might be the first time ever that he saw Joel sit out on the chance to meet new people, maybe he was having a bad reaction from the energy drink or something, but the vocalist still took note of it.

“Well I don’t know about you,” Gem says, gathering the attention of everyone. “But I’m so ready to crash, which bunks are still available?”

Immediately Skizz and Big B were quick to explain the system they have set for the sleeping quarters, which bunks are available and what not.  The group led the two towards the back, Scott following in tow, but falling behind due to the weight of his extra bags.

“Here, let me help you with that.” Joel offers, reaching down to grab one of Scott’s bags, only for the vocalist to turn and give him a glare that would’ve killed Jimmy on the spot. The kind of glare that could only be given with the expressed purpose of getting someone to back the fuck off.

“I think you’ve done enough.”

With that, Scott followed behind his bandmates, leaving Joel with an empty look on his face. Jimmy just sat on the couch in absolute shock, once again sipping his tea because what the hell else was he supposed to do.

He was waiting for the moment Joel would acknowledge the fact that the vocalist was in the room, but that moment never came. The drummer just stared at the crusty tile of the kitchen as he balled his fist, completely spacing out as everyone else settled down for the night. What the hell was that?

 

* . °•★| 1:24 ───ㅇ───── 3:13 |☆•° . *

Dress rehearsals went by without too many problems, which Jimmy was forever grateful for. His nerves were already trying to outcast the sandwich he ate earlier from his stomach, the singer didn’t also need to deal with malfunctioning equipment on top of that.

Without much else to sort out, the bands returned to the back, enjoying the luxury of the two dressing rooms the venue offered them. They weren’t anything special; worn brick covering every wall with a variety of different social media handles written into the grime using sharpie.

There were a few mirrors, the fancy kind that had light bulbs lining the frame of it, which Jimmy felt like an absolute idiot for failing his makeup in. An absolute mess of eyeshadow and eyeliner decorated his face, framing the tears building up in his eyes.

“Hey Jiggles, you all good over there?” Skizz asks from across the room, running a few exercises on his guitar before the show. He was sitting on a couch that has probably not left this room for the past century, age evident with the amount of marks and tears in it.

“Just fine.” Jimmy grumbles, once again pulling out a make up wipe to remove his failures.

“You know, I can do your makeup if you need help.” Big B speaks up, grabbing an energy drink from the ancient vending machine to the left of the couch. Of course he would offer to help out; with his perfect guyliner and perfect muscles and perfect everything.

“Nah I got it.” The room went silent as Jimmy tried once again to match the makeup of his bandmates, only to let out a frustrated shout when he failed yet again.

Skizz and Big B made eye contact with each other, silently debating the best way to approach their bandmate. It didn’t take too much introspection to realize this had nothing to do with the makeup, after all, Jimmy has been rocking this very style ever since he was a teen. With a nod, the guitarist got up from the couch, the cushion indented where he sat.

“Gotta grab some replacement strings from the bus real quick, be back in a jiffy.” Skizz announces as he leaves the room, Big B taking the opportunity to sit down at the mirror next to the vocalist.

They were silent at first, Big B pretending to scroll his phone and fix his hair. Taking a sip of his energy drink, the bassist’s facial expressions strained as he coughed.

“Wow, this one might rival the one Joel had yesterday.” Big B laughs out to no one in particular, but Jimmy turns from his reflection to check the flavor of the beverage.

“Who in their right mind would flavor an energy drink after coffee?” Jimmy questioned, getting a laugh out of the other man. After some pestering, the blonde tried the drink, being hit with a ridiculous amount of caffeine with only one small sip.

“If you don’t throw that out, I will B.” Jimmy coughs out, desperate to try and get the bitter taste out of his mouth.

Big B offered Jimmy a soda, which the vocalist downed immediately, not helping his stomach feel any better. However, he couldn’t find it in him to care about that when he was too busy laughing at the ridiculous interaction.

“What’s up, losers.” Joel greets as he enters the dressing room, Skizz following close behind, lacking the guitar strings he went out to fetch.

The drummer immediately settled next to Jimmy on a flimsy directors chair that was left out from earlier, ruffling the vocalist's hair as he sat down. With a small grumble, Jimmy tried to smooth out his hair for the hundredth time that day.

“Oi watch it,” The vocalist speaks up, shoving Joel lightly. “I spent, like, an hour on my hair this morning.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything less from our little diva.” Skizz jokes, hugging Jimmy from behind, purposefully resting his chin on top of the vocalist's head.

“Mate, what did I just say?” Jimmy tries to shoo away the guitarist, but doesn't have the heart to push Skizz away.

The group continues to bicker like that while Jimmy attempts to perfect his makeup, still having trouble getting it just right. It was no longer bringing the man to tears though, so that was a major improvement.

“Wait bro,” Joel speaks up, grabbing Jimmy’s eyeliner from his hands. “No wonder you’re having trouble, this brand actually sucks to apply. Hold up a sec.”

The drummer started digging through his pockets, laughing about how much random junk he had in there before he pulled out his own eyeliner, showing it to the vocalist. It seemed like any other brand you would find at the drug store, by definition nothing special compared to what Jimmy was using previously.

“Here let me show you.” Joel said while grabbing a makeup wipe to clean off Jimmy’s face once again, creating a clear canvas. He reached up to grab Jimmy’s chin and started applying the eyeliner, smearing it as he went to get that signature guyliner look the band had.

The applicator felt cheap against Jimmy's eyes, and he couldn’t help the soft smile that appeared on his face. He wasn’t stupid, he knew this had nothing to do with the brand he was using, or even the makeup in general. Joel was trying to get him as comfortable as possible before the show, and it was working.

“There you go.” Joel announces as he pulls his hand away from Jimmy’s face, giving him a pat on the back before getting up from his chair. “Now you look better than all of us, god I’m too good at this stuff.”

“Whatever you say babe.” Jimmy rolls his eyes, and he could see the smirk on Joel's lips in the mirror at the reoccurring joke. In all honesty, the makeup was probably no different from what the vocalist kept doing earlier, but if Joel thinks it’s good enough for the stage, who is Jimmy to disagree?

Getting up from his seat, and untangling the chains that got caught on the chair arms, Jimmy stretched. His black shirt rode up enough to showcase his fishnet top, which was 'covering' his stomach, getting him a playful cheer from his bandmates. The vocalist was about to tease the band for their rowdiness, but the room shook before he could.

Caught off guard, the blonde jumped and held back a yelp, quickly realizing that it was just the show starting and not an earthquake ruining the first night of their tour. Faintly, he could hear a familiar voice through the walls as Gem and the Scotts started their first performance of the tour. The walls buzzed slightly from the power of Gem and Impulse’s instruments, being hooked up to an ungodly amount of speakers and soundboards.

“Shows officially started then.” Jimmy says to no one in particular, a surreal feeling taking over the vocalist’s body. His first tour has officially started.

“Sounds like it, come on mate lets go get a closer look.” Joel grabs Jimmy by the arm and practically drags him out the room, leaving their other bandmates behind.

Joel led his friend through the several winding halls that made up the venue’s upstairs, nearly tripping on the staircase as it appeared unexpectedly. With a laugh, the two made their way down to the ground level, being able to easily view the stage from where they lurked; and an amazing sight greeted Jimmy as he looked towards their openers.

The tired strangers from last night have completely transformed themselves into absolute rockstars, with the screen behind them looping a pixelated cherrywood forest animation. Gem wore a pair of overalls with a black and yellow color-blocked shirt underneath, a yellow contact in her right eye to match the shirt and the yellow heart on the front pocket of her overalls. Paint decorated the right side of her face, shining in the glow of the headlights.

Impulse was a bit harder to see due to sitting behind his drumset, but he wore all black with yellow accents sewn into the fabric, a patchwork heart shaped in the middle of his chest to match Gem. Yellow face paint showcasing intricate patterns on the guy, putting Jimmy’s guyliner to an absolute shame.

Then there was Scott, jumping in the flashing lights of the stage, effortlessly hyping up the crowd before the chorus of the song they were performing. He was wearing an off the shoulder white top with a green heart printed on the front; a mesh jacket layered overtop of it, the see-through garment matching his hair perfectly in the light.

A pair of jeans accompanied the outfit with a matching pair of chains to Jimmy’s own, and if Jimmy looked closely enough, he could see the jeans were patchworked with slightly different shades of denim. On his face, Scott painted several stars amongst his freckles, all matching perfectly with his hair. Jimmy couldn't help but gawk at him.

Scott was a natural, completely owning the stage despite probably getting lackluster sleep the night before. There was a moment when Scott kicked the air in sync with Gem as they hit a big note in their song, and Jimmy felt the exact moment he realized he was fucked.

He chalked up last night, or rather this morning, to his sleep-deprived mind trying its best to function at the ungodly hour; but he couldn’t avoid it anymore. He was head-over-heels for his tourmate, god help his soul.

If Jimmy wasn’t so preoccupied by the show, and Scott, he would’ve noticed how Joel stood just out of view of the performing band. Watching the stage with an unreadable expression before patting Jimmy on the shoulder.

“That's gonna be us in a few, how you feeling?” Joel asked and Jimmy had to force his eyes away from the stage to respond, thankful that the lighting was dark enough to hide his blush.

“Insanely intimidated by our opening band.” Jimmy answers honestly, which gets a laugh out of Joel.

They watched the band perform in silence, the vocalist itching to join them on stage. The energy from the group was absolutely contagious, and Jimmy couldn’t help his cheer as the three wrapped up their set, thanking the crowd for a good night.

The band left the stage, quickly being replaced by stage hands rushing out to get everything in order for the Reject's performance. Jimmy and Joel made their way backstage, just waiting as things got set up.

Skizz and Big B eventually made their way to the others, meanwhile the stage crew worked fast to set up equipment and perform a sound check with the technicians in the back of the venue.

Jimmy’s chest grew heavier and heavier as he watched their instruments get set up; from anxiety or excitement, he had no clue. He was going to find out in a few minutes though.

The lights on the stage completely dimmed as a fog machine started working to cover the ground. A stage hand gave Joel a thumbs up, which the drummer responded with a nod before turning towards his bandmates.

“Alright guys, first headlining tour, you ready to make history?” Joel asked, excitement clear in his voice as his friends hyped each other up. With a smirk, Joel waved goodbye to his bandmates, entering the stage. The moment he stepped out, he was met with the screams of their fans, despite the crowd not being able to properly see him.

Skizz and Big B went out together next, carrying their instruments and making sure the cables sticking out of them didn’t cause any trouble. The crowd only got louder as the two got in position, anticipation building with every second that passed. With a deep breath, Jimmy closed his eyes and walked out to the center of the stage in front of the rest of his bandmates.

With a knot in his chest, the vocalist turned to look back at his friends, and each of them were giving him the proudest look he could've ever imagined. Smiling, Jimmy turned back to the restless crowd, pulling the microphone left for him on stage closer while he waited for his cue.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Jimmy whispered to himself, too weak to be caught into the microphone. Just as he said it, the lights illuminate the stage and his bandmates start playing their instruments.

“Who’s ready to get this tour started?” Jimmy shouted out, face illuminated to the eager fans in the room, being met with even more screaming. With a smile, Jimmy starts singing the beginning lyrics to an all too familiar song.

 

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

Notes:

Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed chapter one!

Fun fact, this is the first work with multiple chapters that I have ever written! My game plan for this work is to post once a week every Friday, no exact time because college is starting up soon and I have no clue what my schedule will become in the next couple days.

Have an amazing day (or night), and I will see you next friday!

Chapter 2

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

 

“Hey Tim, do us a favor, if you’re gonna be sick then be sick away from the camera.”

 

Jimmy rolled his eyes at his brother's remark, trying to find some kind of reprieve from the motion-sickness that’s been plaguing him for the past couple days. Go figure, after a week or so of being in non-stop perpetual motion, it starts to affect your body.

“I’m not gonna be sick.” The vocalist said, trying to convince his siblings, and himself, with the statement. Although feigning complete confidence, Jimmy pulls the bucket in his lap just a little bit closer to his chest.

He’s basically been hiding out in his bunk all day, only leaving earlier that morning to grab some water and a liquid IV. Jimmy’s original plan was to hide out in the bathroom and prepare for the worst, but his bandmates reminded him it would actually cause more problems if he was sick in the toilet. So, curled up in his bunk with a bucket it is.

Ever the opportunist, his siblings took it upon themselves to keep him company while he stewed in his own misery. Jimmy didn’t have any doubts that Pearl was genuinely concerned, Grian however…

“Mate, your five shades lighter than usual, don’t lie.” The man snickered into Jimmy’s headphones, taking any opportunity to punch down at his brother. Maybe video calling his siblings wasn’t the best idea given the current circumstances.

“G has a point,” Pearl says, her voice slightly distorted from the poor connection at her work. “You’re looking a little worse for wear.”

Jimmy had to hold back the bile that forced its way up his throat at a particularly large bump in the road before responding, “Yeah, eating fast food and surviving off energy drinks does that to a person.”

Grian perked up from the assignment he was working on to look over at Jimmy’s pale face; all the while Pearl moved her phone to a new station, handing off a drink to someone out of view before focusing back on her siblings.

“I would brew you up a coffee mate,” Pearl speaks up, quickly writing something down on a customer's receipt. “But I’m on the clock so it’ll cost ya.”

That got a weak laugh out of the vocalist, still hovering over the bucket in his arms.

“More caffeine won’t do him any good,” Grian says, biting down on the end of the pen he was using to write not a moment earlier. “Y’know I thought with all this traveling you would expand your diet beyond ramen noodles and pizza rolls. Hopeful thinking, I suppose.”

“Oh, like your diet is any better mister.” Pearl adds, before quickly greeting a customer on the other side of the counter. Jimmy had no idea how his sister was so good at multi-tasking, chalking it up to older sister magic because it certainly didn't run in the family.

Jimmy watched as Grian raised his arms in defense, letting out an offended scoff before returning his attention back to the paper in front of him.

“Watcha working on?” Jimmy asks, catching the attention of his brother. Grian has been studying architectural engineering at a local university for a couple years now, a full-ride scholarship allowing him to be the only sibling able to attend college. Everything related to his course work confused the hell out of the vocalist, but it was fascinating nonetheless.

“Oh, just a silly group project.” Grian states absent mindedly. “Have to blueprint and build a model of a modern building using old supports and methods for History of Architecture. Groupmate is quite the Disney fan so we’re creating our own version of Cinderella’s Castle.”

Grian lifted his phone to show off the scattered notes and concept art of old building supports drawn directly over a printed photo of the castle laying on his desk; Jimmy felt a headache begin to form by just looking at his brother's thought process.

“Oh, is this the groupmate you were mentioning earlier?” Pearl chimes in after completing the customers order, sorting some change into the register.

“Yeah, he’s definitely an interesting one.” Grian speaks up, repositioning his phone back into it's original position.

“What happened earlier?” Jimmy asks out, and the vocalist watches as his brother buried his face within his hands.

Feeling a bit out of it due to his condition, Jimmy just looked towards Pearl’s camera in confusion as she began laughing at their brother's reaction.

“Well, Grian went out with his classmate without even realising.”

That caught Jimmy’s attention, returning some kind of color to his face as it lit up with interest.  Grian has always been a tad socially inept whenever speaking to new people, so the idea of his brother going on a date, and being completely unaware of that fact forced a smile on the blonde's face.

“If by ‘went out’ you mean we got coffee and discussed our project, then you would be correct, Pearl.” Grian states, eyes avoiding his phone at all cost, less he be met with his siblings teasing glares.

“Jimmy, they went on a coffee shop date and then took a romantic walk in the park together.” Pearl says, trying to hide a smile behind her hand.

“We went to the park to study the historical settlement in the middle of it!” Grian defends, a pink blush covering his cheeks. “It’s not my fault the city built a romantic park around some of the only historical architecture we have!”

“So you admit it’s romantic…”

“I said nothing of the such!”

As his siblings continued to bicker amongst themselves, Jimmy couldn’t help the wave of relief that washed over him as he felt the bus come to a stop. His stomach finally settled for the first time in a while, and he allowed himself to stop hugging the bucket to his chest in favor of grabbing his water.

Distracted by Grian and Pearl's ongoing argument, Jimmy didn't hear the voice of his bandmate speaking, only becoming aware of the new presence after a finger jabbed him through his bunk's curtain. With a jump, the vocalist pulled back the fabric to reveal Joel staring down at him.

“Hey bro, we’re gonna be at this rest stop for an hour or so. You feeling any better?” Joel asks Jimmy, quickly muting his siblings to give his full attention to the drummer.

“Not really.” Jimmy answers with a groan. “I only felt better once the bus stopped.”

With a hum, the drummer sat down on the ground to be eye level with Jimmy, analyzing the vocalist as if a doctor to a struggling patient. Jimmy shrunk under the attention, averting his eyes to look towards his siblings again, who still appeared to be arguing.

“Then I’m not gonna hassle you with leaving the bus.” Joel concludes. “We’re grabbing food from a diner next door, you got any requests?”

Thinking back to the judgment the vocalist got earlier for his diet, out of spite, Jimmy answers: “Some fruit would be great, thanks mate.”

“Of course,” Joel rises to his feet, stretching as he does so. “You need something else, just send a message, alright?”

“Sounds good.” Jimmy responds before they go their separate ways; Joel walking out of the bus to join the rest of the band and Jimmy rolling to his side.

Looking back towards his phone, Grian and Pearl seemed to have calmed down from the heated discussion about the previously mentioned groupmate. They both returned to their respective tasks, giving each other the silent treatment.

“Grian you won’t believe it.” Jimmy speaks up after unmuting himself. “I just asked for fruit.”

“No vegetables, such a shame.” The man responds, not even looking up from his desk. Jimmy just rolled his eyes, turning his attention to Pearl as she washed some dishes just in view of the camera; which had changed positions once again.

Sometimes it felt as though Pearl lived on a different continent than her brothers.  Between working shifts at the cafe and completing commissions at the studio, she basically worked all hours of the day, often coming back to their apartment far past the time Jimmy and Grian fell asleep.

She made up for her busy schedule by calling her brothers whenever she got the chance, and in turn they would try to visit her at work or in the studio as often as possible. The sounds of humming coffee machines and the crackling of a pottery kiln have become synonymous with Pearl, the vocalist finding comfort in the simple white noise that always accompanied his sister.

With every spin of a pottery wheel or latte topped with foam, Jimmy was reminded that Pearl had, without a doubt, the best work ethic out of the three. If the vocalist was being honest, he was insanely intimidated by his siblings.

Between Pearl working her ass off to make it as an artist and Grian’s dedication to his studies, he often saw himself as nothing special in comparison.

Jimmy never was all that dedicated to school, finding much more enjoyment running off with his friends to do god knows what. Aside from a shitty part-time job back in his teens, the vocalist never really tried to push himself to work. Truly, if the Rejects didn’t throw him a bone, he had no idea what his life would look like right now.

Grian and Pearl were fully supportive of him pursuing music, and Jimmy knew that, but it was hard to not feel out of place when he has two remarkably talented siblings.

“Helloooo? Earth to Jimmyyyyy.” Pearl drawls out, now holding the phone in her hands as she walks outside; shift most likely over by now.

“God sorry, still feeling out of it.” Jimmy sighed, rubbing his eyes as he attempted to return back to reality.

“Clearly.” Pearl responds with a laugh. “I was just asking how the shows have been so far.”

Taking a moment to think, mind still hazy from the vocalist's visit to retrospection station, Jimmy responds: “It’s been great, the fans have been nothing but nice which is good! No technical problems either, so it’s honestly been smooth sailing so far.”

“That’s good to hear.” Pearl says, audio even worse than before now that she's outside. “I’ve already cleared my schedule for your home show in a couple days, can’t wait to see you perform again!”

Before Jimmy can take the compliment, Grian breaks his silent treatment.

“Oh yeah, I still have plans before the concert so it’s up in the air if I’ll make it on time.” Hiding a smirk behind his hand, Grian kept his focus towards his desk.

“What are those plans exactly?” Jimmy asks, all too familiar with his brother's game.

“A friend and I signed up to organize student records by who’s most likely to drop out.” Grian recites, as if he practiced the line beforehand. “I simply can’t leave them alone with the task, it would be unfair.”

Pearl was about to speak up to shame their brother, but Jimmy beat her to the punch with a practiced line of his own.

“Oh, that’s a shame you’re gonna miss the opener.” The vocalist couldn’t hide the smile on his face as he watched Grian turn towards the phone with an unreadable expression. “They honestly put on a better show than me.”

“Did I mention that my friend is nocturnal,” Grian quickly adds to his previous explanation. “So I’ll actually have to leave the event early to help out.”

Jimmy laughed at his brother's rushed explanation, basking in the uncommon feeling of beating Grian at his own game. Distantly, the vocalist heard a group of footsteps enter the bus, his tourmates unmistakably back from breakfast.

The blonde didn’t have to wait long before some fruit and yet another water bottle was delivered to him by his bandmates. After a quick check in, they left Jimmy alone, trying to not further interrupt the call with his siblings.

Opening the to-go container, Jimmy was quick to dig into his food, racing time before the bus was set back into motion and he could no longer stomach the idea of eating. The vocalist could distantly hear the chatter of his peers from the other room over, though that was quickly disrupted by a voice in his headphones.

“Grian, if I could clear my schedule to go to this show, then you’re imaginary friend can wait.” Pearl says; audio much better with their sister now inside the local art studio that basically functioned as a second home.

The man went silent after that, not willing to argue that his schedule was harder to negotiate than their sisters’. That would’ve just been foolish on Grian’s behalf.

“Fine.” Grian relents. “I’m only going though cause you sold me on the opening band, they seem so much cooler than you.”

With a roll of his eyes, Jimmy bites into a piece of watermelon, juice dripping from his mouth as he ate. It was only then when the vocalist realized how disgusting he felt; yet to properly get ready for the day.

Waiting for a natural lull in conversation, Jimmy excused himself from the call in an attempt to get cleaned up before the bus began motion again. After raising a hand to acknowledge his friends in the lounge, the vocalist makes his way into the cramped bathroom.

The space still felt very empty, however with the new exception of three polaroid pictures that have been taped to the mirror.

The first picture showcased Gem and the Scotts on the first night of the tour, all sitting on the edge of the stage with their legs crossed and heads tilted towards the camera. Next to it, the second picture showed the Rejects backstage that same night, Skizz and Big-B posing for the camera as Jimmy stood behind them looking out at the stage; Joel was absent from the picture.

Then the third one was a picture of Scott laying down in the bunk above Jimmy’s, drawing on some kind of tablet and looking very annoyed at whoever was behind the camera. Smiling at the collection of photos, the vocalist bent down to wash his face in the sink, feeling better already at the small action.

When Jimmy went to raise his face out of the sink, he made the mistake of hitting his head underneath the mirror, holding back a curse as pain flooded his brain.

As Jimmy looked up at the mirror, he wasn’t greeted with his reflection, but rather a bunch of shelves. He didn’t even realize the mirror was a medicine cabinet in his last analysis of the room, almost embarrassed by how obvious it seemed now with the mirror wide open.

The shelves were completely empty, all except for one; the top shelf contained a single pill bottle with Jimmy's name written on it with black sharpie. It might've been the sketchiest thing the vocalist has ever seen, but nevertheless he grabbed the bottle.

It was an anti-nausea medication, which seemed like a god sent given his current predicament. However, Jimmy knew better than to take random pills with his name written on them, so he willed himself to take a closer look at the bottle.

Despite being scratched up, Jimmy could make out the receipt on the side of the container being addressed to Joel. The vocalist tried, and failed, to hold back a smile as he popped two of the pills Joel got him while he was out; praying their relief came sooner rather than later as he felt the engine of the bus start under his feet.

Leaving the bathroom to return to his bunk, Jimmy caught the drummer's eyes and mouthed out a 'thank you' in his direction. An hour or so later, the bucket that once accompanied the vocalist in bed was retired back into storage, the action earning a relieved look from Joel.

 .ılılıll ↺ |◁ ll ▷| ♡ llılılı.

After the amazing performance tonight, it was Joel that brought up the idea of grabbing drinks,  Jimmy quickly joined in on the plans. However, he didn’t anticipate a fan walking up to the Rejects at the bar, asking the band to sign their shirt when the vocalist was three drinks away from rational thought.

Obviously this wasn’t a problem, it’s not like Jimmy owned the bar or anything, it just caught him by surprise. Apparently his bandmates were familiar with the fan; meeting them at a previous tour or something. So while everyone talked, the blonde just nodded along, pretending to recall the stories that were brought up while sipping his drink.

Jimmy's eyes drifted across the room during the interaction,  catching sight of Gem and Impulse setting up a game of billiards in the corner of the bar. The two bandmates appeared more sober than the Rejects, but the light flush on their cheeks showed they weren't immune from their previous drinks.

A poke to Jimmy’s arm brought his attention back to the group, Skizz jabbing a sharpie into the vocalist rather forcefully.

“Come on Jiggles!” Skizz says. “You’re not drunk enough to be ignoring us yet!”

With a laugh, the vocalist snatched the sharpie from his bandmates hands, looking over to the excited fan who just motioned to wear the others wrote down their names. After a few seconds of panic, Jimmy never being insecure of his signature till this exact moment, he signed his name.

“Thank you so much!” The fan exclaims, grabbing the Sharpie back from Jimmy. “Killer show tonight by the way man, it lived up to the hype!”

“Oh thank you,” Jimmy says, trying to achieve some kind of composure; the haze clouding his mind making that task difficult. “Couldn’t have done it without such amazing fans though, definitely one of the best crowds in the tour so far!”

“Oh look at him avoiding credit again.” Skizz coo’s, cupping Jimmy’s face in his hands and squishing it. “This guy refuses to accept how awesome he is; as if you would give a bad performance, even if the crowd was lame! "

That got a laugh out of the group, Jimmy swatting the guitarist away with a very noticeable blush on his face. The laughter only grew as Skizz almost fell out of his bar stool, catching Big B’s arm before completely face planting in front of the fan. Joel sent a quick glance to check if Skizz was okay before going back to ordering a round of shots.

“Don’t need to be lectured by the guy who can barely keep his balance.” Jimmy teases, getting a laugh out of the fan. “But seriously, it was a pleasure getting to perform for you lot tonight.”

The fan smiled at Jimmy before excusing themself, heading over to where Gem and Impulse stationed up for the night. With a sigh, Jimmy rested his chin on the palm of his hand, content with just watching his bandmates interact with each other.

Skizz was, once again, talking to Big B about his work out routine while Joel was passing shot glasses out to the group. They didn’t have a show tomorrow, so they were able to sleep off any hang-overs without worry, and it seems the drummer is taking full advantage of that fact.

“I propose a toast!” Joel shouts out while raising a shot glass, interrupting the conversation between his two bandmates.

“To our amazing performance tonight, yesterday, and the day before that, and the one before that one...” Joel shakes his head, stopping himself from rambling. “I couldn’t imagine touring with a better band than you lot, we’ve been killing this whole head-lining thing!”

To humor the drummer's drunken affection, Jimmy picked up a shot glass and held it out towards him, Joel's smile growing wider at the action. Skizz and Big B picked up on the hint, reaching to grab glasses of their own.

“I love you guys, seriously.” With that, they all clinked their glasses together, before hitting the cups on the bar and downing the shots. The sting of vodka hit the back of the men's throats, pushing the group further into the haze of intoxication.

“Remember guys, if we ever need Joel to be sappy, we just have to get him drunk.” Skizz teases, voice coarse from the lingering alcohol in his throat. The man in question shot the guitarist a glare, getting a laugh out of the group.

“Sure I might get a tad emotional after a few drinks,” Joel defends, holding his hands in the air. “But at least I don’t go around giving everyone and their mum a hug.”

As if on cue, Skizz leaned onto Big B; slightly awkward due to the gap between the barstools, but the man made it work, shoving an accusatory finger in Joel's face.

“Don’t make me bring up what happened last tour!” Skizz shouts out, Big B wrapping his arms around the guitarist in order to steady his friend.  “No one's necks were safe that night!”

“God Skizz!” Joel shouts back, a flush creeping onto his face. “You kiss one guy on the neck and suddenly that’s what you'll be reminded of until the day you die!”

At the rather hilarious display, Jimmy heard a snicker from the corner of the room, turning to see Gem holding back a laugh at Joel's fit. The vocalist gave her a smile before getting up and walking over, taking a moment to regain his balance before the journey.

Impulse was currently bent over the pool table, lining up his play, but giving a nod to Jimmy's presence. Gem on the other hand gave the vocalist a proper greeting, leaning against the table with a billiards stick resting on her foot.

“Don’t feel safe in that group anymore?” The bassist teases, getting a laugh out of her bandmate.

“Not without a neck cover.” Jimmy responds, leaning against the wall as Impulse hits his stick against the white ball, breaking the triangular formation the others were lined up in. He managed to knock a striped ball into one of the pouches built into the table, trying and failing to hit another one in.

“You’re solids, Gem.” Impulse says, finally looking up towards the vocalist. “Jimmy wasn’t it?”

With a nod, Jimmy reaches out a hand and offers the drummer a fist bump before responding, “Sure is, Impulse right?”

“And Gem!” The woman shouts out while analyzing the table, looking for her best play. She ended up moving towards the opposite corner and knocking two solids into two different pockets.

“And Gem,” Impulse repeats, casting a playful glare in his bandmates direction as he walks towards the table to make his play. “No Scott though, retired for the night after the show.”

Jimmy tried not to let his disappointment be too obvious; but he’s three drinks in and however many shots deep, so he can't guarantee he succeeded in that task. Instead of embarrassing himself, the vocalist decided to settle on a question that's been lingering on his mind.

“Speaking of, how come your band name is Gem and the Scotts? Was Impulse a last minute addition?” Jimmy jokes, getting a laugh out of Gem and messing up the man's shot.

“Guess that could be kinda confusing.” Gem laughs out. “Impulse’s middle name is Scott, so it was just meant to be.”

With that mystery solved, Gem bent over the table again and scored another point, much to Impulse’s chagrin. However, the bassist missed the next shot. As Impulse looked for his next move, Gem walked over to the vocalist, grabbing her drink that was on the side table next to him.

“Sorry, we would’ve done teams if we knew you were walking over.” She states, glancing over her shoulder to check on her bandmate.

“Oh, it’s all good,” Jimmy responds, scratching the back of his neck. “I honestly don’t think I can walk straight right now, let alone commit enough focus to play a game of pool.”

“You never know, you might be really good drunk!” Gem responds. “I’m terrible when I’m sober.”

As if to prove the point, she took a sip from her drink, glass nearly empty as she brought it to her lips. Jimmy just laughs before looking over to Impulse, still searching for the best play.

Trying to combat awkward silence, Jimmy asks; “How are you guys enjoying the tour so far? You know, with it being your first and all.”

“Oh, it’s been great!” Impulse speaks up, moving from across the table and finally lining up to take his shot. “I thought the crowds were great back home, but they are nothing compared to what we’ve seen on the road!”

After finishing his thought, Impulse knocks the white ball into motion; hitting two stripes into pouches, the white ball following behind them. Gem celebrates the drummer's rookie mistake, grabbing and positioning the white ball where she wants.

“Yeah no, touring has been awesome.” She replies, easily landing another shot, leaving Impulse fuming. “Makes me want to consider doing this kind of thing full-time.”

That’s right, Jimmy nearly forgot that Gem and the Scotts were a college band. He honestly knew nothing about the group before meeting them in the morning a week or so ago, not being told much aside from the limited information Joel shared on the bus.

“What’s stopping you?” Jimmy settled on asking, Impulse once again looking over the table.

“Nothing is stopping us per say.” Gem responds, missing her shot and turning her focus to hitting her billiard stick between her hands. “We’ve just not really considered it yet, I mean, we’ve only been an official band for a little over a year now.”

“Wait seriously?” Jimmy asks. “With the way you guys performed, I assumed you’ve been at it way longer.”

That got a laugh out of the two bandmates, Impulse once again lining up his shot for the game. Gem just took another sip of her drink before turning her attention back to the vocalist.

“We’ll take the compliment.” She laughs out before continuing. “However, that is far from the truth.”

A smile took over Impulse’s face as he knocked a stripe into a pouch, turning his attention back to the conversation. “Yeah no, I’ve been doing drums for a few years now, but Gem here learned bass a week before we formed the band.”

Jimmy couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping as he processed what Impulse just told him. Gem, the woman standing in front of him, learned bass and got good enough to join a band in the time span of a week.

“I picked up an instrument and Scott joked about forming a band during one of our study groups.” Gem elaborates, clearly seeing the shocked expression Jimmy was sporting. “Then in a week's time it was no longer a joke, I was still pretty crap though.”

“Still,” Jimmy starts, trying to recover from his surprise. “With the level you're at now I would’ve assumed you’ve been playing since you were a kid.”

Gem just rolls her eyes playfully before turning her attention back to the game. Quickly spotting her next move and getting into position before knocking two more solids into the table’s pouches.

Holding his breath, Jimmy watched as Gem knocked the final solid ball into a corner pouch, turning her full attention to the 8-ball in the middle of the table. Luckily, the bassist missed her shot at ending the game, Impulse totally-not-purposely distracting her to do just that.

“Naw I’m a complete newbie to this stuff.” Gem settles on saying, turning her attention away from the table in frustration as Impulse takes his turn. “Scott's the only one that’s been in a band before, come to think of it, I think he mentioned touring before too.”

After speaking, Gem gets a distant look in her eyes, mind clearly doing its best to recall a  conversation while her previous drinks actively worked against her.

“Well that’s good,” Jimmy says, snapping Gem out of her head. “If you told me Scott was new to performing I would’ve cancelled my contract immediately. I saw you lot perform the first night of the tour, and you guys were great and all, but Scott definitely knows how to own a stage.”

Impulse rejoins the conversation after failing his shot, Gem once again turning her attention to ending the game.

“Yeah no, Scott is amazing in front of a crowd.” Impulse agrees. “Our first show was at a school event, Gem and I were both shaking in our boots while Scott was dancing around the stage like a madman.”

That got a laugh out of Gem, who was now leaning over the table, lining up her best shot for the 8-ball. After a few seconds, she hit her stick against the white ball and immediately landed the 8-ball into a pouch, jumping in celebration as Impulse rolled his eyes playfully.

“Come to think of it, Scott was acting a lot like that.” Impulse jokes, pointing over to where Gem was celebrating her victory, which earned a laugh from Jimmy. Completely ignoring the jab, the bassist walked up to her bandmate and started shaking him by the shoulders.

“You know the deal, Impulse!” She shouts out. “You owe me a victory drink!”

After Gem relented her attack on her bandmates' balance, the drummer walked off to the bar to grab the promised award; making conversation with the Rejects while he was up there.

“What do you say, Jimmy?” Gem asked out, grabbing a piece of chalk and rubbing some on the tip of her billiard stick. “You wanna go against the champion?”

“I can’t promise I’ll be any good.” Jimmy laughs out as he pushes himself off the wall, suddenly very aware of the room spinning.

“Oh trust me, I don’t care about that.”

With a laugh, Jimmy grabbed a stick off the wall he was previously leaning on. Trying his best not to get distracted by the colorful lights and conversation happening around him, he turned back to the bassist.

“Alright, game on.” 

 

͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙ ♫ •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙

Jimmy was having a terrible, no good, really bad day. The tour has officially reached his hometown, and literally everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong.

Firstly, Jimmy was very familiar with the venue they were performing at tonight, doing a show here ages ago with his old band. On the night of performing, every single one of his bandmates got some form of injury, and they claimed the venue to be cursed, vowing to never perform there again.

Well, at least as a group, because the vocalist re-enters the building in the present day, trying to ignore the shiver that ran up his spine. As if the building was trying to prove a point, everything was malfunctioning during dress rehearsals.

More than three different amps weren’t working, leading the bands to use the back-up equipment they weren’t too familiar with. That’s all good on paper; but when Gem’s amp nearly makes everyone deaf from one chord progression, and all the instructions for the thing were in a different language, it wasn’t fun.

After that fiasco was done with, the venue itself tried to settle the score, having one of the stage lights nearly crash right on top of Scott’s head. Narrowly avoiding a concussion, everyone decided to take five while the concert staff and stage hands fixed everything up.

It was the right call, especially considering anyone on that stage could have been sent to the hospital, but the choice led them to be two hours behind. So dress rehearsals were sloppy at best, Jimmy not getting nearly enough time to practice as he would have liked.

It’s whatever, at least he’s still alive, Jimmy can take that win. Being crushed by a stage light is a very unfortunate way to go, especially at the show his siblings would be attending.

However, the problems followed Jimmy back into the bus as he searched for his outfit he picked out for the performance, unable to find it for the life of him. It got to the point where the vocalist physically didn’t have time to keep searching; throwing on a black tank-top with a pair of black-and-white checker board skinny jeans.

It wasn't a bad outfit by any means, but it wasn’t what Jimmy imagined for tonight, adding another flaw to be anxious over.

Running back stage to the big dressing room both bands were sharing, Jimmy attempted his makeup. Much like the first night of the tour, the vocalist found this task incredibly difficult; even more so since he was now sharing a room with Gem and the Scotts.

His hands were shaking as he did his regular guyliner, all the while Scott was effortlessly painting the most intricate pieces of art, that frankly belonged in a museum, on his bandmate’s faces. Yet another thing to be worried about.

Last time this happened, Jimmy’s bandmates helped calm the vocalist down, in that annoying, teasing way they always do. Tonight however, everyone was too on edge to engage with each other.

Big B was fiddling with his bass back stage, trying to get it properly tuned as the instrument seemingly fought back against him. Skizz was running around helping stage hands find the missing piece of their drum set, all the while Joel was reporting everything that happened earlier to their tour manager, and Jimmy was left alone.

Properly alone once Gem and the Scotts left the room to go on stage. The loud vibrations of the opening band's performance shook the walls, drowning out the shakiness of Jimmy’s breaths. His brain was pounding against his skull, but the vocalist couldn't acknowledge that, he still had so much he needed to do.

First off, he needed to complete his damn eyeliner; but he also had to do his vocal warm ups that he didn’t get the chance to do during dress rehearsals. He had to grab a water bottle to take with him on stage. He had to impress the fans, despite every part of him wanting to crawl out of his skin and escape this cursed building.

Finally getting his makeup to look somewhat presentable, the vocalist started prepping his voice while reaching out to grab his phone. He couldn’t hear himself because of the poor soundproofing of the venue, but bad practice is still practice.

Looking down at the screen in his hands, he was greeted with a picture from Pearl. Their sister had her arm wrapped around Grian, as if preventing him from escaping the building; Jimmy didn’t blame him if he wanted to. Accompanying the picture was a single message.

‘Look who actually managed to show up on time! Can’t wait to see you up there! ’

Seeing his sibling's faces in the crowd of concert go-ers was surreal; they stood out like a sore thumb, wearing very bland clothes compared to the crowd around them sporting fishnet tights and spiked bracelets.

This wasn’t the first time they’ve ever seen him perform, far from it. They’ve been to a couple of his concerts, and almost every single choir recital his school put on. However, this was the first time they were seeing him perform professionally.

Wasn't that a scary thought?

This was Jimmy's chance to show his siblings how important this part of his life was to him; just as important as school was to Grian or just as important as every project was for Pearl.

The vocalist felt his hand start to shake while staring at the picture of his siblings. Or was the entire room shaking? Who was he to say?

Slamming his phone on the vanity he was stationed at, Jimmy stood up to start pacing around the room. His legs were shaking. The floor was shaking. The walls were shaking. The building was shaking. He was shaking.

Jimmy cursed as he felt a tear drip off his face onto the floor, soaking into the ancient carpet of the venue. Grabbing a makeup wipe, he removed the dark streak of eroded makeup that followed the tear in its wake.

Who was he kidding? This makeup was horrible.

Completely erasing his work, Jimmy reached for his eyeliner brush to redo the look for the hundredth time that night, but he couldn’t. The brush was shaking. The vanity was shaking. The roof was shaking. His bones were shaking. He was shaking.

The vocalist dug his palms into his eye sockets, silently praying that the motion would ground him, but the building kept shaking in tandem with his body.

A sob left the vocalist's lips, lungs suddenly desperate to release every breath he’s ever took all at once. Jimmy didn’t hear the sob; too overwhelmed by the sound of the opening band's performance to notice.

God, did Jimmy envy the opening band right now.

Scott was a couple inches away from sporting a concussion earlier today and was giving an outstanding performance; meanwhile Jimmy was freaking out over messing up simple makeup and losing out on a few vocal exercises.

The world was shaking. He was shaking.

Clutching his eye liner brush for dear life, Jimmy steps away from the vanity and stares at his trembling eyes. He needed to get out of here.

It was ten times harder to navigate the hallways of the cursed venue while actively fighting off a panic attack, but Jimmy somehow managed. Walking out the back door, the vocalist was greeted with the sight of their tour bus, engine running weakly into the night.

Jimmy couldn’t make it to the bus, so he just leaned against the beat-up brick wall of the building. He was still shaking, slowly falling down the wall as his legs gave out, the fabric of his clothes catching on every groove carved into the brick as he fell.

Distantly, Jimmy could still hear Scott’s voice singing, vaguely starting to recognize the songs on the openers set. He tried to follow along, grounding himself to something, but he couldn’t.

Scott had no clue he was out here. Gem and the Scotts had no idea he was out here. The Rejects had no idea he was out here. His siblings-

Jimmy raises his head, tears threatening to fall down his face once again. He was shaking.

It was then when Jimmy realized he didn’t have his breathing in order, only being able to breathe in for a second before his lungs forcibly removed the air. Pulling his legs up to his chest, the vocalist hugged himself and closed his eyes, setting focus to the few things he could notice in the moment.

He was outside. He could hear Scott singing. He could feel the audience cheer. He could see the pattern of his jeans. He could hear some fans leave the building. He couldn’t hear Scott. He was alone. He was shaking.

“Jimmy?”

The vocalist wanted to look up at whoever called his name, but his body couldn’t physically move. Luckily, he was able to let out a sob so the person knew their presence was acknowledged.

“Hey, it’s okay.” The voice speaks up again, this time feeling closer than before, more level. More grounding. “Just take some deep breaths for me. There you go, just like that.”

Jimmy didn’t even realize his breathing was improving; still feeling on the verge of passing out with every intake of air. However, he can't imagine the stranger was lying about his breathing condition, so he continued the hopeless effort of trying to breathe normally.

Slowly but surely, the vocalist's lungs began to ache just that little bit less, eyes no longer feeling as though they were going to escape his skull. His body slowly got the message, calming down into a cautiously relaxed position as Jimmy continued to follow the strangers instructions.

“You’re doing great, can you look at me?” The voice asked, and Jimmy was finally able to move his body at the instruction.

When he tilted his head to the side and cracked open his eyes; he was expecting to see Joel, Skizz, or maybe even Pearl sitting with him. Jimmy’s breath caught in his lungs when he was greeted by cyan hair and a soft smile.

“There you are. " Scott greets, tilting his head slightly to be level with Jimmy’s crooked stare. "Just keep breathing, okay? "

Even if Jimmy had fully gotten over his previous panic, he still couldn’t breathe. Not when those indescribably beautiful eyes were looking back at him.

The irises reminded the vocalist of spending late nights with Pearl in the art studio, her paint pallet being filled with various shades of gray, blue, and navy. Though the memory didn’t even come close to the beauty of the eyes looking towards him, so Jimmy was back to the drawing board on different comparisons.

“Deep breaths.” Scott reminds the blonde, and Jimmy swears he saw the vocalist hold back a smirk. Surely the man is aware of what he was doing to Jimmy, especially now, when the very sight of him stunned the blonde out of a panic attack.

Startled into compliance, Jimmy focuses on his breathing again, lungs no longer attempting to kill him at the very idea of trying to use them.

So, the two men sat on the dirty concrete of the vocalist's hometown, breathing in all the fumes and pollution that comes with being in a bigger city. Jimmy wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Watcha got there?” Scott breaks the silence with the question, gesturing towards the blonde’s hand. In a white-knuckle grip, Jimmy was still holding his eyeliner brush.

“Oh, just my eyeliner.” Jimmy says, voice shaking a bit, still recovering from the previous attack.

Scott looks between the vocalist and the cheap makeup in his fist, quietly analyzing the situation before speaking up again.

“I can help you apply it, y'know, sense there’s no mirrors out here.” Scott offers, arms held to his sides, making no effort to force his help on the other vocalist without permission.

“Please.” Was all Jimmy could say, and Scott jumped into action.

Pulling the sleeve of his jean jacket over his fist, Scott patted the tears off of Jimmy’s face, drying his canvas before beginning to paint on it. The blonde just held his breath as Scott worked, only now realizing each other's proximity to one another.

“Sorry in advance,” Scott says before grabbing Jimmy’s eyeliner and cupping his face, the leather of the man's gloves feeling cold against the vocalist's skin . “I’m not too familiar with the smudgy eyeliner the Rejects usually do, so it might look like shit.”

Jimmy couldn’t help a laugh as he closed his eyes; as if anything Scott could do would look like shit. It seemed like everything the other man did was redefining perfection. The vocalist started working on Jimmy’s left eye, as the blonde fought the urge to lean into Scott’s touch, staying completely still, almost scarily so.

“Don't quit breathing on me.” Scott teases, and the blonde didn’t even realize his lungs were holding in a breath. God why couldn’t he just act normal? He didn’t know what normal was anymore, sitting behind a decrepit building as an angel reincarnated did his emo makeup.

What a life.

“Sorry, nerves.” Jimmy speaks up, and just gets a hum in response from the other.

“This is a hometown show for you, right?” Scott asks, and Jimmy fights the urge to widen his eyes in shock.

“How’d you know that?” The blonde asks, Scott moving onto his right eye.

“Just a hunch.” Scott started. “Life Records are based in the city, so I figured most of your bandmates were locals.”

It wasn’t a bad assumption to make, Joel and Jimmy were both from the city, along with the previous vocalist. However, Big B and Skizz were from a couple towns over, only moving once they signed with the label.

“You’re not far off, Joel and I are both locals.” At the mention of the other man, Jimmy could feel the grip on his face tighten ever so slightly.

They fell into silence after that; Jimmy trying his best not to be weird about Scott being so close, and Scott trying to not mess up his tourmates makeup.

“You know,” Jimmy started, thinking out loud rather than directly addressing the other man. “I performed at this venue with my old school band, and we refused to perform here again, believing it was cursed.”

“How’d that work out for you?” Scott asks, a smile evident in his voice.

“Well, you almost got a concussion earlier, so not well.” That got a laugh out of Scott, and Jimmy’s heart fluttered at the sound.

“Is that why you were freaking out?” The vocalist asks Jimmy, pulling his hands away from the blonde's face, his job complete.

Opening his eyes, Jimmy was greeted by Scott's own staring back, trying to analyze his work on the blonde's face.

“Kinda?” Jimmy answers truthfully, letting his legs fall away from his chest, resting them on the pavement. “It was kinda a bunch of different factors that caused that though.”

Scott tilted his head, resting it on his palm as Jimmy continued to speak.

“It just felt like nothing was going right today, so I was already on edge. Then I got a text from my siblings about the show and… I don’t know.”

The vocalist waited patiently for Jimmy to continue his thought, as if they had all the time in the world. Or rather, as if time itself stopped in that moment for everyone except for the two, nothing more important than what the blonde was about to say.

“I’m really close with them, and they support the whole band thing but…”

“You’re scared of getting judged?” Scott finished the thought, and Jimmy just nodded.

“I get that.” Scott shares, leaning his back against the wall and staring up at the darkening sky. “Back when I was going professional, I was constantly worried about people from my old school finding out and making fun of me.”

That confession brought the realization that Jimmy’s old schoolmates might be in the crowd, making him tense up the slightest bit.

“How'd you get over that?” Jimmy asks, and Scott let out a weak laugh.

“I stopped going professional.” Scott stated simply, and it was only then that Jimmy remembered the vocalist used to be signed with the label; Scott used to be in the same position that Jimmy was in right now.

“Sorry.” Jimmy mutters, getting a confused look from the other man.

“Don’t be, it was a while ago. Plus that was only a small reason as to why I left.” Scott explained, dragging his eyes from the sky to stare back at Jimmy’s. “Nowadays performing is more so a hobby for me.”

Jimmy envied that mindset; being able to brush off his livelihood to a simple hobby.

“When I was professional though, I always felt better after reminding myself that performances didn’t matter too much.” Scotts speaks up. “I mean, one way or another, in a couple hours all this stress, all this anxiety will be over.”

Jimmy let the cynical advice enter his brain, and found some kind of comfort in it. He could walk out on that stage tonight and totally bomb, and regardless he would still be sleeping in his bunk on the bus tonight.

“That is… strangely comforting.” Jimmy states, getting a smile from Scott.

“Yeah. It is, isn't it.”

They sat in silence, just enjoying each other's company as the world resumed around them. Distantly Jimmy could hear traffic crowding up the roads, pigeons building a nest on a nearby building, or even the water running in the sewers underneath them; but the only thing he cared to listen out for was Scott’s voice.

However, the peaceful moment was interrupted by frantic footsteps and the back door swinging open, hitting the wall in the person’s haste. Frantically looking around, the crew member locked eyes with Jimmy and let out a sigh of relief.

“Rejects are going on in two minutes, I would get in position.” She shared before running back into the building, probably managing a million other things on top of Jimmy hiding outside.

“Welp,” Scott stood up, brushing the dirt off his jeans before reaching out a hand for Jimmy. “That’s a threat if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Yeah.” Jimmy laughs out, reaching to grab the other’s hand, being helped off the ground.

There was a moment where neither of them let go, just standing and staring at each other; Jimmy pulled away with a cough.

“I should probably get going.” Jimmy states the obvious, pointing towards the back door.

“That's probably for the best.” Scott laughs out, hiding his handsome smile behind his pair of cyan fingerless gloves.

Jimmy prepared himself to hear something along the lines of: ‘Good luck!’ ‘Go kill it out there!’ or even ‘Break a leg!’ as the two vocalists started going their separate ways, but Scott once again subverted his expectations.

“Have fun.”

With that, Scott walked towards the bus, and Jimmy allowed himself a moment of shock before bolting backstage, finding his bandmates waiting for him.

Jimmy did not give the performance of his life that night.

However, he still got congratulations from his siblings, praises from his bandmates, and cheers from the fans. A couple hours later, Jimmy was laying still in his bunk as the road moved underneath him, and he couldn’t help the silent thank you he whispered to Scott before sleep overtook him.

The man in question smiled at the faint words from the bunk underneath him, throwing on headphones and grabbing his tablet.

It was going to be a long night.

 

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

 

Notes:

Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed chapter 2!

Finally after sixteen-thousand words they finally have a conversation, who would've thought!

I wanted to take a moment to thank all the love and support the first chapter of this work got! I honestly wasn't expecting much attention, but I'm glad to see you guys are just as excited for this book as I am! Some of y'alls comments literally made my week, so thank you for that ♡

ALSO, I've had a very particular way of picturing how the Gem and the Scotts performed, and it wasn't until I finished up this chapter that I realized I was projecting them onto a real band I have actually seen live before. That band is called Honey Revenge and they make some absoultely amazing music, so if you wanted to get more insight about how I view Gem and the Scotts for this AU, you should 100% check them out!

With that being said, thank you so much for reading, and I will see you next friday!

Chapter 3

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

 

It was a silent morning on the bus, everyone trying to recover from the night prior. After the show, the bands hit the road immediately to stay on schedule; however many of the roads were unpaved at best and straight up rock piles at worst.

Jimmy felt as though he was being tossed around his bunk all night, being fully slammed against the wall a few times. At the worst of it, Joel got completely knocked out of his bed, ending up on the floor with Big B and the vocalist; giving up on the idea of sleep until the turbulence calmed down.

Luckily, the band didn’t have a show for a few nights, so their lack of rest shouldn’t impact the tour all that much; but that doesn’t mean Jimmy enjoys running on two hours of very restless sleep.

Sluckishly, Jimmy soaks his tea bag into heated water as he sat in the lounge with a few people that also gave up on sleep.

“I was fighting for my life I swear.” Gem complains while sitting cross legged on the sectional, hands moving around in exaggeration. “I had to barricade myself in with my bags; it would've been a nightmare falling from the top bunk.”

“Falling from the middle wasn't fun either.” Joel speaks, the lack of sleep evident in his voice as he rubbed his eyes. His comment at least got a laugh from the group, raising spirits a little bit.

“Wait, did you actually fall dude? I heard the thud but was too annoyed to look.” Skizz says, tone too energetic for what they just experienced.

“Yeah, he was cuddling with Big B and I on the floor after he fell.” Jimmy says, getting an eye roll from Joel.

“Aw no fair, you guys always cuddle up without me!” Skizz shouts.

The bus was filled with a wave of weak laughs at the comment; energy slowly growing, but the group was still clearly affected by the prior night.

“I swear it’s impossible for you guys to stop flirting with each other.” Gem speaks up. “Not even the nightmare that was last night can hold you back.”

The group just chuckles at Gem’s jab. They’ve been on the road for a few weeks now, and at first the bands mostly just stuck to themselves, but slowly everyone has started to open up to each other.

Whether that was Skizz and Impulse talking about existential questions early into the morning, Joel and Gem doing a game of trivia at every bar they visit, or even Scott comforting Jimmy before his hometown show; it’s undeniable that the bands have grown closer.

Which, in turn, has led to the Rejects being put under scrutiny whenever doing something abnormal for a band; this supposed ‘flirting’ being one of them.

“You’re just jealous of our love.” Skizz responds, leaning onto Joel for emphasis.

Gem just makes a face at them before responding; “I really don’t think that’s it, Skizz.”

A distant cough could be heard from the sleeping quarters and Jimmy watches as Joel turns his attention away from the man leaning on him to the distant sound.

“It's fine Gem, you can admit it.” Skizz continues. “Maybe next time we can invite you to the group cuddle pile!”

“I would have to be dying of hypothermia before I would even consider that invitation.” The woman says, scrunching her nose.

That got a laugh out of the vocalist, turning his attention to the window behind him and Gem. Outside was a bunch of red and orange rocks that slowly built into mountains, not a single blade of grass in view.

It felt so foreign to the crowded city that Jimmy was used to living it. Instead of a bunch of hustling people and traffic, this place was completely vacant; the only exception being the bus they were on.

A bright flash of light stuns Jimmy out of his head, blinking rapidly in surprise at the unexpected attack. The vocalist heard a laugh as he came to, turning to look over at Scott in the kitchen holding a polaroid camera.

“Oh, this one is going on the mirror.” He says as he sits down between Gem and Jimmy.

A black polaroid slowly printed out of the camera, still needing time to develop before the blonde could see the, most-likely embarrassing, photo. As Scott settled in his seat Joel stood up, heading towards the kitchen to make something that somewhat resembles breakfast.

“What is it with you and your pictures, Scott Smajor?” Skizz speaks up, now looking very alone on his couch. Taking pity, and also trying to get his mind to stop racing after realizing Scott sat next to him, Jimmy joined his bandmate on the other couch.

“A long, long time ago.” Scott starts, shaking out the polaroid in his hands. “Back when we formed the band, we took a polaroid together for our first performance. Then it kinda became a tradition.”

“Oh don’t remind me of our first picture.” Gem groans, covering her face while doing so.

“Surely it can’t be any more embarrassing than the one Scott just got of me.” Jimmy defends, getting a laugh out of Scott.

“You wanna bet?” Gem asks while pulling out her phone and scrolling through her photos.

“Depends what we’re betting. " Jimmy laughs out.

A few seconds later, Gem flipped her phone to reveal a picture of a polaroid laying on some kind of table. It showed Scott on the left, clearly holding the camera, as Gem and Impulse stood in the middle of the frame looking very startled.

They seemed to be backstage for some kind of event, and it threw Jimmy off that they weren’t wearing any kind of makeup or group costume. They were just in casual clothes; Gem looking as if she was about to drop her bass and Impulse actively jumping in surprise.

Gem was silent, waiting to be proven right, however Jimmy was nothing if not stubborn. He learned that one from his brother.

“It’s not too bad.” Jimmy starts, getting yet another laugh out of Scott. “I guess we’ll see which is worse when mine is visible.”

Gem just rolls her eyes and continues talking with the others, refusing to play Jimmy’s game. He could learn a thing or two from her.

Jimmy tried to stay engaged in the conversation, but he was once again pulled away from the task. This time, he heard yet another cough coming from the sleeping quarters, catching the vocalist's attention.

Now in view, Jimmy could see Joel did the same. With a sigh, the vocalist took another sip of his tea, heading towards the kitchen.

“Watcha making?” Jimmy asks out to Joel, snapping his attention away from the sleeping quarters. With the sudden attention, the drummer just looked down at the half-cooked eggs on the pan in front of him.

“I was working on an omelet, but I remembered we never grabbed cheese or veggies, so it’s just eggs folded in on themselves.” Joel says, poking a plastic fork at the food inside the pan.

The Rejects wanted to grab proper ingredients for a couple simple recipes after investing in a portable cook top a couple rest stops ago. However they keep forgetting simple things like butter or milk, so it’s been a rather pathetic display so far.

One day they’ll be able to cook a half decent meal, but for now they are stuck with plain old eggs and frozen food.

Jimmy was about to crack a joke about the sad meal, however his thoughts were once again interrupted by a cough from the bunks.

“Alright, that’s it.” Joel states as he ditches his attempt at cooking, walking forward. “I’m going to check on whoever that is, you stay put.”

“Why can’t I tag along?” Jimmy asks, mocking offence.

“You’re the vocalist. Being sick wrecks your voice. Surely you’re smart enough to figure that one out.” Joel says, a hint of humor lining his tone as he enters the sleeping quarters.

Jimmy considered Joel’s explanation for about two seconds before following behind the drummer; too interested to be held back by the threat of a little cold.

The living quarters were still, almost scarily so; bunks all lined with privacy curtains as people tried to sleep off the rough night from earlier. Yet another cough rang through the space, the two men noticing the sound came from the bottom left of the room.

“Big B, the jig is up!” Joel says as he removes the curtain with his foot, revealing the man.

The bassist was shivering despite being wrapped up in several blankets, a couple of discarded tissues laying around him messily.  With a sigh, Big B looks up towards Joel.

“What’s the point of a privacy curtain if you’re just gonna open it?” The man asks; his soothing voice noticeably more crass than usual, no doubt a side effect of his current condition.

“What’s the point of hiding a cold on a cramped bus?” Joel retorts and Jimmy had to hold back a laugh as the bassist rolled his eyes.

Big B was definitely the most level headed of the Rejects; always being the first to calm conflicts and come up with solutions. With that trait, it’s easy to forget that he is arguably the most stubborn out of the four bandmates, especially when not feeling his best.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Big B says as he stands up from his bunk, Joel pushing Jimmy away from the man.

“Neither did you.” Joel responds with a smirk playing on his lips.

“Well that answers your question then.”

Jimmy felt as though he was having a stroke watching his two bandmates interact. Everything they were saying was just vague enough to connect with the topic at hand, but so mysterious that the vocalist had to question if they were speaking a different language.

“Mate.” Jimmy starts, the drummer still firmly holding him away from Big B. “What the hell are you actually on about?”

“Exactly bro!” Big B explains walking towards his bandmates, the two slowly backing up in the process. “See he gets it.”

If Jimmy didn’t know any better, he would think he was being gaslit. You know, scratch that, the vocalist had no idea what was happening right now. He probably was being gaslit.

“Walk into that restroom and I’m quarantining you into that shower!” Joel shouts as Big B reaches for the handle of the room in question.

“Don’t worry, I’m not.” And with that, the man stepped onto the tiled floor of the forbidden room.

“Oh you’re gonna get it.” Joel rolls up his sleeves, mocking intimidation, before jumping at the bassist and pushing him towards the shower.

Jimmy watched in absolute shock; completely dumbfounded by everything that has happened ever since him and Joel entered the sleeping quarters.

“What’s all this noise for?” Skizz asks, seemingly appearing out of thin air next to Jimmy, nearly giving the vocalist a heart attack when he spoke up.

“Dude!” Jimmy shouts out. “What is it with you guys today acting all weird!?”

Skizz stared silently at the vocalist, utterly confused for a good moment, that was until he heard a cough from Big B in the bathroom. Joel was quick to force a medical mask on their bandmate in their scuffle, now properly trying to shove him in the shower.

“Wait, is Big Bopper sick?” Skizz asks, a hint of excitement in his words.

“Maybe, he was coughing, but that doesn’t explai-”

“Shut up!” Skizz interrupts, not attempting to mask his excitement anymore. “He always gets so weird and cryptic when he’s sick, I love it!”

“Oh, I see how it is!” Big B accuses Skizz, earning a laugh from his two bandmates.

“Just get in the bloody shower bro!” Joel shouts at the bassist, actively using all his body weight in order to push the man, but failing at the task.

“His traps are too big!” Skizz jokes, joining in Joel's efforts into forcing the bassist into quarantine.

Jimmy was about to join his bandmates, but three people in the tiny bathroom were two too many already, the shower itself not being big either. The shower has mostly become storage for instruments and other bulky equipment; the original purpose being lost the moment they entered the space.

The shower was functional, however it didn’t have hot water unless you did some kind of weird drill that seemed straight out of military camp. So, the bands mostly just relied on rest-stops, local gyms, and venues to have showers for them, rather than dealing with the hassle.

“What on earth is happening here?” Impulse yawns out from next to Jimmy, rubbing his eyes as he was doing so.

“I wish I could tell you.” Jimmy laughs, watching as his teammates successfully got Big B through the shower door. “Big B has a cold and is acting weird, and I think they’re trying to quarantine him?”

“Oh okay.” With a shrug, Impulse walked to the main area to meet his bandmates; his reaction just created more confusion for the vocalist. Surely this situation didn’t warrant that kind of response.

“Success!” Skizz shouts as he slams the bathroom door closed; Big B shoved in between guitar cases and sound boards in the cramped space.

Joel opened the medicine cabinet, nearly hitting Skizz's face in the process. He moved around a few things, the shelves now full of junk gathered throughout the band's time on the road. Finally, he found what he needed.

“Shit, I knew we should have stocked up at the last rest-stop.” He curses as he throws a pill bottle over the glass door of the shower, the container hitting Big B straight on the head.

When Big B opened the container, Jimmy could see there were a couple pills left, probably only just enough to nurse Big B back to normalcy. Thank god for that.

“I’ll grab some water.” Skizz states before heading to the kitchen, leaving enough room for Jimmy to enter the space. That earned him a wary look from Joel, but he just brushed it off and turned his focus to the bassist.

Big B found a nice spot to sit, right on top of the drum set equipment. Which probably wasn’t advised, but neither is quarantining someone in a tour bus shower, so to each their own.

“Why do I have these when Jimmy’s the sick one?” Big B asks, the universe working to correct his lie as a cough was forced out his throat.

“I don’t know, you seem to be coughing an awful lot for not being the sick one.” Joel says, crossing his arms with a hint of a smirk showing on his face.

“Are you hearing things?” Big B asks, sporting a look that Jimmy couldn’t entirely read.

Once Skizz returned with the water, the bassist took the pills without a fight, much to the surprise of his bandmates. If he did decide to fight, then they would’ve been absolutely screwed.

“Alright, Big Bopper.” Skizz speaks up, sporting his typical leader stance as if giving an explanation. “We’re gonna let you out. You will stay in your bunk with that mask on, and you will not leave until you’re past this bump in the road.”

Jimmy had to hold back a laugh when everyone lost their balance at an actual bump in the road right as Skizz said that. The bassist just rolled his eyes, nodding right after his rebellious action.

“You hate me.” Big B says while crawling under his bunk, and Skizz just laughs before responding; “No, the bandmates and I love you very, very much.”

Jimmy took the chance to grab some of the discarded tissues laying around in the bassist's bunk, tossing them in a trash bag. Skizz gave him a quick thank you before turning his attention back to Big B.

“You just love how big my traps are.”

“Well obviously dude, have yo-”

Rather than sticking to babysitting and incessantly complimenting the bassist with Skizz, Jimmy heads to the front of the bus. Joel was sitting across from Gem and the Scotts explaining the situation.

“Since you and Jimmy are somewhat close to B’s bunk I’m gonna leave the masks nearby.” Joel explains, and Gem and Impulse listened intently, despite the drummer not addressing them.

“Is there anything we can do to help out?” Impulse asks while standing up, showing his eagerness to help.

“Probably just sanitizing the hell out of this place.” Joel responds, and Impulse went to grab some cleaning supplies from the kitchen, needing no more instruction.

Jimmy sat next to Joel on the sectional, and the drummer immediately handed him a medical mask.

“Do you mind wearing one of these while we’re figuring this out?” Joel asks, although it didn’t seem like an option. “It’d be best to keep the vocalist as protected as possible. Y’know since you lot need your voices to be healthy and such.”

“Yeah, sure man.” Jimmy put on the mask immediately, meanwhile Scott was just holding the mask Joel handed him earlier.

“Yeah. Sure. Anything for the performances.” Scott states while staring directly at Joel, putting on the mask while doing so.

Jimmy looked towards the drummer and, once again, Joel was sporting that empty, unreadable look. The vocalist felt as though he was seeing it more and more the longer this tour went on.

“After all,” Scott continued, standing up from his spot on the couch. “Can’t have poor little Jimmy faint on stage or something.”

When Scott passed the blonde on his way to the kitchen, he ruffled his hair; and Jimmy was even more thankful for the mask covering his face. Joel sighed next to the vocalist, turning Jimmy’s attention away from his own thoughts.

“We have four days on the road till the next show, Big B should be fine by then.” The drummer states to no one in particular, rubbing his head as if nursing a migraine.

“Yeah.” Jimmy speaks up. “Yeah, everything should be totally fine by then.”

ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

Everything was completely fine. Sure, Jimmy woke up with a crick in his neck, but that’s probably from his thin pillow. He also seemed paler than usual, but that was his motion sickness acting up again, despite the pills working perfectly fine before this.

He was fine, everything was fine.

The vocalist was wearing a mask at all times, even in his sleep, which Scott wasn’t even doing. He was using hand sanitizer seemingly every time he touched something, and was avoiding Big B’s bunk as much as he could, despite sleeping across from him.

Joel and Skizz were doing all the dirty work of washing the bassist’s sheets, sanitizing the bus every other hour, and even giving Big B his medication. Jimmy was not doing any of that stuff, so he was not at risk of getting sick.

His sore throat was surely from not drinking enough water, and his shivering was simply because the bus was no longer in the mesa like before; he must’ve gotten used to the temperature while traveling there.

He was fine, everything was fine.

Jimmy and his tourmates were currently raiding the rest-stop they found in the middle of nowhere; in search for any healthy food (and mostly snacks) they could live off of till the next rest stop.

The Rejects were racing to find their weird drink at the station, which Skizz found in the form of a soda with the simple name of ‘ok’. No flavor profile, no ingredient list, no nothing. Just ok.

This rest-stop was stranger than the usual ones they visited. One aisle they would have some regular crisps and the next there was vintage pottery vases straight out of a museum.

Jimmy was staring at a strangely familiar sculpture of a cod and axolotl killing a salmon before he felt a sharp pain rip through his throat. Thankfully the vocalist was able to duck into the bathroom before a rapid coughing fit hit his lungs.

No matter how much the vocalist tried, his lungs would not stop coughing, reminiscent to drowning. The fit came in waves, giving Jimmy a few seconds of rest before returning to him.

After about three minutes of non-stop coughing and lung convulsions, Jimmy finally was able to calm his lungs and steady his breathing. Looking up into the mirror, he noticed he was still wearing a mask, which he ripped off lazily to throw away. Not like it was doing him any good being covered by his own illness.

“This isn’t fine.”

As the vocalist spoke, he could already hear the damage to his voice caused by the strenuous activity he was just partaking in.

He was fucked. Big B just used the last of the medicine this morning, basically feeling better already, just a rough voice. They had a show the next day, Jimmy couldn’t afford to be sick.

The tour is yet to cancel a show, and Jimmy would hate to be the person to break that streak; not to mention he would be disappointing not only the Rejects, but also Gem and the Scotts.

This was their first ever tour, and they’ve killed every single performance so far. Jimmy would feel terrible if he ripped a show away from the band, forcing them to stand by because he had a common cold.

Taking a few deep breaths, Jimmy decides that no one can know. He won’t hold his tourmates back. He might not be fine now, but he will be.

Racking his brain, he tried to remember if the rest-stop was selling any kind of cold medicine. The vocalist didn’t see any when he entered, but to be fair, he was a bit too preoccupied with the weird drink contest and strange decor.

Surely they had to have some kind of medicine Jimmy could sneak onto the bus; he just had to find it, buy it, then hide it from his tourmates for the time being. It really is the perfect plan. Surely nothing could go wrong.

As the vocalist walked out of the bathroom, he was immediately met with Skizz and Impulse stumbling forward, so obviously pressed against the previously closed door. Just his luck.

“Hey Jiggles!” Skizz exclaims, quick to catch his balance. “You doing okay, sounded like something was dying in there.”

Jimmy went pale, or well, paler. There’s no way this plan got foiled before he even got the chance to execute it. He also was no longer sporting his mask, which gives even more context to what he was trying to hide from his tourmates.

Well, it was a good run, Jimmy made it a solid 20 seconds. A truly valiant effort.

The vocalist was about to speak up and explain everything, praying that his band wouldn’t take it upon themselves to cancel the show tomorrow. At least that was the plan, but Impulse interrupted him.

“Oh, you’re on vocal rest!” Impulse exclaims, reaching to grab something in his coat pocket. “Scott’s been on one for a couple hours now, trying to not strain his voice; I guess great minds think alike.”

What? Was Jimmy really going to get out of this by being socially awkward?

“Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Skizz says absentmindedly, crossing his arms while analyzing the vocalist; Jimmy just smiled at him.

“Here’s an extra mask though.” Impulse fishes the textile out of his pocket after much effort. “Been carrying some extra around cause Scott can be forgetful.”

Jimmy grabbed the mask and immediately put it on, lest he infect more of the tour with this illness. He nodded a thank you towards Impulse, then made some kind of motion that he was going to look around the store.

The two men let him be; Skizz too preoccupied with finding Joel, and Impulse following along like a lost puppy.

While they were busy, Jimmy took it upon himself to search every shelf he could see in order to find some kind of cough medicine, but to no avail.

Ancient-looking ocean artifact, just down the fourth aisle. A ginormous grey model car that everyone agreed looked ugly, right past the chips. A weird purple void that seemed to lead to an entirely different universe, down the hall past the bathrooms. Cough medicine, just behind the counter…

Just behind the counter!

Jimmy could’ve fallen to his knees and thanked every god he could think of when he saw a box of Advil sitting next to the tired, part-time worker stationed behind the counter. He walked over, grabbing a pack of gum in order to not cue in his tourmates on his nefarious plan.

He spoke quietly to the cashier, which probably made their job harder considering the room was blasting music, but Jimmy’s got a reputation to uphold. He was a completely fine vocalist, simply resting his voice to give the performance of his life tomorrow.

He’s in too deep now, already committing several minutes into a search for medicine without looking suspicious at alllllll.

The cashier handed Jimmy the medicine and gum over in a plastic bag; which had too much empty space to justify its use, but it worked best to hide his purchase.

The vocalist left for the bus, most of his tourmates still in the gas station grabbing a few things, which worked best for him. When entering the vehicle he was met with a groan from Big B, still clearly exhausted from his illness.

He’s basically recovered at this point; no longer coughing his head off or acting mysterious for seemingly no reason. Joel was still forcing the bassist to stay quarantined in his bunk for the time being; the drummer attempting every precaution imaginable to stop the spread of the illness.

Jimmy felt a bit bad that he ruined Joel’s efforts, but he will make it better. He will hide out in his bunk for the time being, quarantining just like Big B did, and keep his mask on at all hours of the day. He can push through this for his tourmates. He had to.

The vocalist stopped himself from heading into the bathroom and setting the medicine inside the cabinet; this was a secret no one should know. It was just a common cold, he didn’t want his bandmates to stress out and overreact to something Jimmy could easily handle on his own.

He got some Advil, tea, and a shit ton of determination not to ruin everything. He will be fine, everything was fine.

Jimmy raised his mattress a small bit, being met with the absolute disorganization that his bags were in. Ever since the tour started, underneath the vocalist's mattress was just becoming more and more of a nightmare to manage.

Sure everything has their assigned bags and spots, but try keeping organization while running late for your cue and having to find the perfect shirt that matches your pants. Organization was a struggle for Jimmy; but out of sight, out of mind.

He was only reminded of his absolute mess whenever he lifted his mattress to look; which he tried to avoid as much as possible. However, he couldn’t avoid it now. Much like his unorganized bags, he had to hide his cold from his tourmates.

Jimmy refused to fuck up this tour for the rest of them.

After popping a few pills, taking a little over the recommended amount for maximum effect because that is 100% how that works (not really please don’t be like Jimmy). The vocalist lays down and begins his self-inflicted isolation.

He considered calling his siblings, but that would blow the cover of being on vocal rest that Impulse so conveniently gave him. So, to avoid boredom, Jimmy pulled out his phone to begin what would inevitably become doom-scrolling.

He saw a couple videos of the Rejects performance a few nights ago, smiling as he watched himself on the screen. Jimmy has been growing more confident around the Reject’s fan base, receiving nothing but support so far into the tour.

As much as he thought he owned the first performance of the tour; comparing videos of the first night with more recent shows, the difference was clear as day. The vocalist was getting so much more comfortable performing for the fanbase, and it showed.

Right then, a cough ripped through Jimmy’s lungs. He quickly had to chug some water to prevent what would've become a coughing fit, forcing his attention on anything else to not clue in Big B on his condition.

The vocalist’s eyes were forced back on his phone, the video now recording the audience moshing during the performance. The fans were nice enough to give him a chance, so he won’t let them down because of a simple cold.

He won’t let the Rejects down because of a simple cold.

He won’t let down Gem and the Scotts because of a simple cold.

He won’t let down the stage crew because of a simple cold.

He won’t let himself down because of a simple cold.

He was fine, everything was fine.

༒︎⫘⫘⫘༒︎⫘⫘⫘༒︎

 

 

You would be surprised how quickly someone's health can deteriorate in the span of twenty-four hours. At least Jimmy was.

The vocalist was having trouble existing. The sluggishness from the previous day returned ten times worse than before, now inviting a migraine to torture Jimmy just that little bit more.

Coughing fits were becoming more and more difficult to hide, causing some awkward interactions where Jimmy randomly burst out into laughter to hide his coughs. However, he had to calm down now, because everyone was getting set up for dress rehearsals and the show started in less than twelve hours.

In twelve hours, it will all be over, one way or another.

The pounding headache, the strained voice, the muscle pain will all be over in twelve hours… surely.

Despite grossly misunderstanding the advice Scott gave him, Jimmy still got some kind of solace in thinking about it. He just has to make it through this one show, then he’ll be all better for the next show tomorrow.

The vocalist had a horrible time sleeping last night. The road wasn’t even causing the problem, evident by everyone being in high spirits this early in the morning, but rather his own mind.

He had some kind of fever dream the first time he went to sleep, waking up in a cold sweat and coughing fit an hour or so after laying down. Usually when this happens, he would make himself a cup of tea while he calmed down, however he couldn’t exactly do that when quarantined in a cramped bunk.

So Jimmy just tried to sleep it off, but his mind was still reeling and trying to comprehend a dream that he didn’t fully understand even while he was in it. The added effect of slowly forgetting the dream wasn’t helping his frantic mind either.

While all the others were getting a peaceful sleep, Jimmy was laying panicked in his bunk over… something. Not the best way to start the day, but he was fine… everything was just fine.

“Hey Jimmy, do you know where the stage crew left the extra strings?” Big B asked, heading back to the bus to search for said item.

Jimmy just gave him a blank look that he tried to play off as a teasing glare, but he probably just looked like he was on his last life or something. He was busy helping said stage crew carry in Joel’s drum set, fingerless gloves loosely protecting the equipment from getting infected.

“Oh right, vocal rest.” Big B says, hitting his forehead with his palm while doing so. “I will say though, you should prioritize some real rest too dude, you’re looking a little rough right now.”

‘Geez thanks’ Jimmy wanted to respond so badly, but he can’t give away his cover now, he’s too far into this to quit. So he just kept staring at Big B while trying to emote to the best of his ability.

“Anyway, I’ll figure it out, thanks dude.” Big B patted the vocalist on the shoulder as he left; and maybe it’s a testament to the bassist's strength or Jimmy’s weakened state, but the small bit of contact caused the blonde to lose his balance.

Catching himself before making a scene, the vocalist headed towards the stage with the equipment in hand. The action alone was enough to get him out of breath, the stage hands giving him a weird look as he started panting after carrying a couple symbols a few meters.

It was then when Jimmy decided it was probably best to retire to the bus and let the professionals and his bandmates handle the set up. He was just causing problems and inconveniences for the people around him, and it wasn’t required to help the stage crew with set up. The Rejects just always felt bad seeing them do all the work.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Jimmy looked around at the venue. He’s seen some pretty shit venues in his time within the industry, and even before that, but this one took the cake.

Unlike the previous stages on tour, this one was outside. The stage was propped up on a platform, light set up hanging over the vocalist and the stage crew with what seemed to be very minimal support.

Then there was a platform for the fans to stand and watch the band, most likely the general admission section, however the platform was raised and could only fit around one hundred people. So if you weren’t on said platform, good luck being able to see the band over the crowd of people that got there before you.

The space almost seemed primed to be the worst concert experience one could imagine, not being helped by the fact that the venue seemed too small for the crowds the Reject’s usually pulled.

Not idle conditions, but Jimmy could manage. In fact, the venue was probably the least of his worries regarding this show.

Looking out from the stage, the vocalist could spot Joel on the phone with who he assumed to be the tour manager. It was very unusual for a tour manager to not accompany a band on tour, and Jimmy wasn’t exactly sure why she wasn’t travelling with them.

Whenever he asked the drummer, he gave some kind of short response about how the label trusted him to keep things under control. To Jimmy’s knowledge, Joel has been with the label way longer than anyone else in the bus, apparently being signed to a completely different band before the Rejects were even formed.

Even then, he was there with the original vocalist and placeholder guitarist and bassist. Joel basically helped build the Rejects from the ground up it seems, so Jimmy could understand why the label would trust him with playing the role of a tour manager on the bus, but it was still a weird choice.

Regardless, Joel seemed a bit panicked on the phone. He was pacing back and forth in the parking lot as he pulled at his hair; voice being too far for the vocalist to hear, but the message was clear, Joel was stressed about something.

Could’ve been the venue? Maybe Big B’s previous condition? Or even the weird beef Scott has with him? All Jimmy knew was that he didn’t want to add to the drummer’s stress. He couldn’t.

Big B walked up to Joel in the parking lot, attempting to help calm him down, having mild success. Hanging up his call, Joel talked to some stage crew and headed into the bus with the bassist.

The crew members stood aimlessly, holding equipment as if forgetting they were in the middle of a task, before continuing their job.

Looking towards the corner of the venue, Jimmy spots Gem and Impulse eating some kind of breakfast at one of the many picnic tables scattered around the place, seemingly unaware of the weird atmosphere surrounding them.

Despite his best judgement, Jimmy found himself heading towards the bus to see what all the fuss was about. Dragging his sluggish legs underneath him, he started the arduous journey of a few meters from the stage back to the bus.

He could hear the Rejects talking inside, seemingly having a serious discussion for once, everyone’s voices quiet and lacking their usual playful tone. That can’t be good.

After taking a deep breath, Jimmy opened the door to the bus and walked up the steps into the common area. The discussion was stopped immediately, his bandmates turning to face him with a deer-in-the-headlights expression.

Oh shit, they were a hundred percent talking about him.

With a small wave, Jimmy tried to escape into the sleeping quarters and avoid the inevitable conversation that was about to happen.

“Put this on and sit down.” Joel says, nearly demands, as he hands Jimmy another medical mask.

He was not fine, everything was really not fine.

“We need you to be honest with us, Jimmy.” Skizz starts, and the vocalist has to do a double take at the use of his actual name. “Did you catch what Big B had?”

The silence was deafening, Jimmy staying silent as if that method would work a second time around when it barely worked the first time. Obviously when that didn’t work, he let out a sigh.

“No.” The vocalist responds simply, his voice betraying him by sounding coarser than sand paper.

His three bandmates all looked towards each other, sharing silent conversations that Jimmy was not privy to. After a few silent moments and emotes passed around the room, Joel spoke up again.

“Jimmy, I really can’t have you lying to me about something like this.” The drummer stood up from the sectional and started pacing around the small space, leaving Jimmy alone on the cushion.

“Joel, I'm serious.” Jimmy insists, fighting through his voice trying to prove him wrong. “You’ve seen me wearing masks 24/7. You’ve seen me use handsanitizer after touching literally anything. You’ve seen me take every precaution imaginable, I’m completely fin-”

“You’re not fine!” Joel shouts, shutting Jimmy up and leaving the rest of the bandmates in stunned silence.

“Bloody hell Jimmy, look at yourself.” The drummer continues. “You look like you’re on death’s doorstep, pale as a ghost with your blood shot eyes. Did you think Skizz wouldn't tell me about the coughing back at the gas station? That we didn’t hear you hacking your lungs out in the middle of the night? Then this-”

Joel holds up the Advil that Jimmy bought the other day and the vocalist's cheeks flush. Whether it was out of embarrassment of Joel going through his mess or frustration at the man calling him out, he didn’t know. Everything was blurring together as tears started lining his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Skizz asks, cutting Joel off before the drummer fully had the vocalist in tears.

“I-” Jimmy starts, trying to find a way out of this, but he can't. “I didn’t want to ruin the tour for you lot.”

The room went silent; Joel stared at the blonde with the most ‘Are you an idiot?’ look he’s ever seen the man wear. Skizz just seemed disappointed, which arguably hurt more than the drummer's face. Big B was just staring at his feet, avoiding eye contact with the vocalist for dear life, guilt carved into his expressions.

If anyone in this room would understand why Jimmy would do this, it would be Big B. After all, he also hid his cold from the rest of the band; not very well, but he attempted to.

“When did you find out you were sick?” The bassist asked out, eyes still glued to his shoes.

“Yesterday at the rest stop.”

Joel started pacing again, his bandmates watched as anxiety slowly clouded his judgement and thoughts; the vocalist had never seen him like this before. Sure he’s seen Joel stressed, tired, and angry once or twice; but right now Joel was supporting an unreadably blank expression mixed with what Jimmy could only describe as pure-unadulturated fear.

“Big B,” Joel speaks up again. “Go tell the stage crew to start packing things up. Skizz, go find Gem and Impulse and tell them we are going back on the road at noon.”

The two men followed the directions, immediately leaving Joel and Jimmy alone in the lounge.

“Joel, we don't have to cancel the show, it's fine!” Jimmy shouts, further damaging his voice.

“No, it’s not, Jim!” The drummer shouts back, loud enough to be heard outside of the bus. “It’ll just cause more problems if you perform tonight, you need to rest!”

“It’s just a few hours Joel!” Jimmy tried to reason. “A few hours and I’ll be back to get some rest.”

Joel stared at him in disbelief, shock seemingly carved into his face as he started laughing. Nothing was humorous about what Jimmy said, far from it. It was the ridiculousness of the statement that caused the strange response.

“Mate, are you forgetting we have a show tomorrow? Then we have one day of travel before another one straight after that!” Joel says while still laughing. “You won’t be able to recover from those shows in that short amount of time while nursing a cold!”

“Respectfully Joel, what do you know about this kind of thing?” Jimmy asks out. “I know my limits better than you do. I’ll handle all the vocalist stuff and you handle the rest.”

“What do I know?!” Joel repeats, once again raising his voice. “Oh, I don’t know, Jimmy. After working in the music industry and joining several bands on tour, you would think I would have an idea on when someone was pushing their limits, but I guess not! What do I know!?”

Joel’s pacing only got more intense as Jimmy stayed completely still on the sectional, trying his best to just disappear from this conversation and start the day over.

“Joel please…” Jimmy whispers, and Joel barely picks up on it while in his state. “I don’t want to cancel the show; I don’t want to ruin this for everyone.”

Joel seemingly was able to calm down enough to lower his voice before responding. “That’s not your call to make Jimmy. I need you to trust me, this is what's best for both you and the tour.”

The vocalist raised his arms to hug himself as Joel sat down next to him on the couch once again.

“It’s not your fault. If Big B was still having trouble, we would’ve cancelled too.” The drummer comforts, or at least tries to. “Everybody understands that it’s not your fault, Jim. You need to take this time to take care of yourself rather than suffer in silence throughout the tour.”

Jimmy didn’t look up to meet Joel’s eyes, still staring at the floor that for some reason hasn’t eaten him whole yet. Quite disappointing really.

“I need you to promise me that you won't keep things like this from us in the future.” Joel says while holding out the Advil box for Jimmy to take, the vocalist just nodded absent mindedly.

“Jimmy.” Joel prompts again.

“Okay, whatever.” With that, Jimmy grabbed the box from Joel’s hands and stormed into the sleeping quarters. Not far off from resembling a kid that just got in trouble with his parents.

Once the vocalist was in the different room, his tears began to build up once again. For a moment he thought he was having another panic attack, but that quickly was proved to not be the case.

With a frustrated shout mixed with a pathetic whimper, Jimmy threw the weak cardboard box across the bus. It flimsily hit the back window, falling down with no dramatics to justify the action in Jimmy’s mind. Vaguely he could hear who he assumed to be Joel leaving the bus.

The box wasn’t enough. He needs to throw something bigger, heavier, something important. Jimmy searched around the place for anything around him, catching sight of his bathroom bag in the closet, and within a second it was flying across the room to join the Advil box on the ground.

“Geez, try not to aim for me next time.” Jimmy turned his attention away from his search for another object to throw; being met with Scott holding the bag he just threw.

“I’m sorry.” Jimmy apologizes, staring at the man like he’s seen a ghost.

“It’s quite alright.” Scott says while throwing the bag onto the blonde’s bunk and turning towards him.

“I’m sorry.” Jimmy repeats.

“It’s okay.” Scott informs.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Jim.”

After a few more apologies and validations. The blonde slowly worked his way out of his angry haze; confronting the reality that he had ruined the day for his tourmates. His negligence and secrecy cancelled the show.

“Are you apologizing about the bag or the show?” Scott asks out loud, grabbing and putting on a spare medical mask that Joel left around. Cat’s out of the bag.

“You overheard, I reckon?” Jimmy asks, earning a nod from the other vocalist.

“Joel’s right to cancel the show, you know.” Scott states, catching Jimmy off guard.

“Out of all the things that have happened today, you justifying Joel was the least expected.”

That got a laugh out of Scott, the man crossing his arms before continuing.

“Are we that obvious?” Scott asks, getting a nod from Jimmy. “Well it’s not often, but I back Joel up on this one. It’s not good to force yourself to perform when you shouldn’t, it causes a lot of problems for both yourself and others.”

“Have you ever done that?” Jimmy asks, looking towards the other man. “Perform when you shouldn’t have?”

“Many, many times.”

The room went silent as Jimmy processed what Scott just shared. He was hesitant to take Joel’s advice when he himself has never dealt with this problem; but Scott not only sharing his own experience with overexhaustion, but ALSO backing up Joel was a pretty eye opening experience.

Scott was wearing an unreadable expression on his face as he turned to look over at Jimmy; what seemed to be pity swam in those indescribably beautiful eyes of his. The very same eyes the vocalist is yet to find a proper comparison to.

Today the irises seemed to resemble what Jimmy imagined rocks that have been sunken to the bottom of the ocean for centuries would look like. Worn down, showcasing a variety of different hues of blue, gray, and cyan.

Not even nature itself seemed to compare though, because the mental image still didn’t rival the natural wonder staring back at the vocalist.

“Anyway,” Scott walked away from Jimmy, heading back towards his bunk. “I was going to find a local cafe to hang out at before we leave at noon. I heard one nearby has a really good honey infused tea that can heal your voice; care to join me?”

After grabbing a bag from his bunk and throwing it over his shoulder, Scott turned back to look at Jimmy, who was standing completely still for no reason whatsoever.

“You really are bad at keeping track of your breathing.” Scott teases as he walks out of the sleeping quarters, Jimmy following in toe. “Suprised you’re able to hold some of those notes on stage.”

“Hey!” Jimmy defends while raising his hands in the air, getting a laugh from Scott.

The blonde caught the eyes of Big B and Skizz as he was leaving, both of them shooting him looks that he couldn’t quite describe. Something between an apology and pity, or maybe even concern.

The two vocalists walked down a few blocks, eventually making their way to this quaint little cafe with some outdoor seating. It was fairly busy considering it was still a bit early in the morning, but not crowded enough to be uncomfortable.

Jimmy made extra sure his mask was secure before heading in with Scott. The inside of the building had wood beams running along the walls and roof, several different carvings throughout the years littered them. Love declarations, MySpace handles, random addresses; you name it, the walls had it.

After ordering two of the teas Scott mentioned before, they went to sit outside with the drinks in an attempt to not spread the sickness to anyone in the building. The weather was lovely, the perfect mix of heat and humidity that isn’t too overbearing or too underwhelming.

As Jimmy pulled his mask down and took a sip of his tea, Scott pulled out a tablet and some kind of digital pen.

“Oh, I saw you with that tablet in the picture.” Jimmy says, more to himself rather than Scott, but the other vocalist heard him regardless. It took the man some time to process what the blonde said as before he responded.

“Oh, that.” Scott laughs out, bringing the cup to his lips. “Gem stole my camera while I was working on a project. She’s been determined to get an embarrassing photo of me for a while now.”

“Project?” Jimmy asks.

“Yeah, I’m actually just about to finish it up if you want to take a look.” Scott offers, opening a file on his tablet before letting it play.

The video displayed pixel art of a little dirt canyon with two hobbit holes built into the land around it; flowers scattering the ground around the homes, only being interrupted by a pond in the middle of the land.

Some skipping stones in the water led to some kind of purple void, glowing mysteriously within the peaceful environment. The video itself was an animation, just a simple loop of seeing the wind causing ripples in the water and shaking the flowers around; animals pacing in the background.

Jimmy could’ve sat there and watched the animation loop for hours if Scott didn’t pause it himself. Something about that place felt so peacefully familiar, yet so distant and far away.

“I just have to export some highlights and I can turn it into my professor.” Scott explains while adding said highlights.

“Oh… I honestly forgot you were in university.” Jimmy states, still entranced by the art displayed on Scott’s screen.

That got yet another beautiful laugh out of Scott before he responded.

“All the members of Gem and the Scotts are students.” The vocalist explains. “Gem is studying Industrial Design and Impulse is one semester away from graduating in technical engineering.

“And you’re fine arts?” Jimmy asks, racking his brain to remember every college major ever.

“Close, I’ve been studying animation for the past two years.” Scott states absent-mindedly, as if that wasn’t the coolest thing ever.

Jimmy couldn’t help his jaw from dropping as Scott stated his major; the man holding back a laugh at the vocalist's reaction.

“Doesn’t animation have an insane workload?” Jimmy asks, because god he has to say something before it gets awkward.

“Yes it does.” Scott rolls his eyes, as if it was an inside joke with himself. “Luckily after I turn this in, I just have my final to do.”

“When’s that due?” Jimmy asks.

“Oh, you knnooowwww,” Scott stalls answering the question. “A month or so from now… on the last show of the tour.”

“The last show!” Jimmy exclaimed, his voice losing all the progress the tea helped it make. “You’re telling me you’re gonna do your entire animation final while you're on tour?”

“What, like it’s hard?” Scott jokes, and Jimmy can't help but laugh at the understatement of the century.

Once again, the world seemed to freeze for the two men, making it all too easy to enjoy each other's company. As the sun kept shining down and the birds chirped around them, the morning only just now getting started, Jimmy couldn’t help but think an all too familiar thought.

He was fine, everything was okay.

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

Notes:

Hello everyone, how'd we like chapter 3?

You might've noticed I uploaded this chapter a bit later than I usually do, and that is because alot has happened in my life! Between moving into my first apartment, having my official debut as a fashion design student, and celebrating my birthday all within the same week; it was kinda hard to find time to write lol!

So I just wanted to take this time to remind y'all that I have no set upload time, only having a dedicated weekly friday upload. With college starting up, I fully expect upload times to be all over the place, but I can garenty that you will at least get a new chapter every week on friday!

ALSO I wanted to shout out an amazing artist that made some adorable Rejects + Scott fan art! Their user is @landfall_called on Tiktok and you should 1000% check them out! I left a comment on one of their videos talking about this fic and they were nice enough to let me promote my work, so please please please share the love by checking out their amazing art works and giving them a follow!

With all that being said, I will see y'all next friday!

Chapter 4

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

 

Something was off, Jimmy couldn’t sleep.

The vocalist couldn’t figure out why he was struggling all night with something as simple as sleep. The road seemed smooth underneath him and everything around the blonde has been quiet for ages; which is rare while living on a tour bus with twelve other people in such close quarters.

Despite the seemingly perfect conditions, Jimmy knew something was wrong.

At first he tried to play it off as anxiety; tensions in the bus have been especially high as of late. The vocalist still hasn’t had a proper conversation with Joel after he canceled the show last week; the drummer hasn't tried to force any kind of conversation either.

Jimmy knew Joel was right. After returning to the bus with Scott in tow that day, the blonde immediately passed out and slept until they were in the next city, completely ignoring the aggressive drivers and reckless driving that surrounded him.

If the vocalist performed that night, he would’ve hurt himself, and the performance wouldn’t even be good enough to justify the effort.

It was hard to admit, but Jimmy was actually glad Joel took authority and cancelled the show, saving both him and the band from a lot of trouble. However, that hasn't been vocalized to the drummer yet.

For the past week Jimmy has watched Joel and the other Rejects act like they’re walking around egg shells around him, and considering they were never not around him, it was kinda getting awkward.

The vocalist knew he had to talk with Joel, that much is obvious, however he couldn’t care less about that right now.

He’s been tossing and turning in his bunk for hours; attempt after attempt of falling asleep becoming more and more pathetic. Anxiety has never kept him up like this before, and he sincerely doubts that it would start now after a whole week of tension with his bandmates.

Rolling over once again, Jimmy grabs his phone to check the time, being met with the blindingly-bright screen claiming it was around five in the morning. With a sigh, the vocalist began to crawl out of his bunk.

He was first greeted by the window behind his bunk, the sky built of a mix of blues and washed out grays presenting itself to him. If he squinted he could catch a hint of the sun peaking past the mountains they were driving through, but for the most part, the sky was composed of a beautiful gradient.

In some ways it reminded Jimmy of the other vocalist’s eyes, however the sky appeared too smooth and serene to match that same intensity that Scott’s irises always seemed to carry. A valiant attempt, but still not a perfect comparison.

Jimmy couldn’t help the weak laugh that left his lips as he looked towards the bunk above his. The first thing the vocalist thought about after getting up for the day was Scott, god he was down bad.

Slowly shuffling his way into the kitchen, Jimmy mentally lists the different types of tea the bands had left on the bus. Most of them were meant to help the vocalist’s keep their voices in good condition, Joel doing some research for the best brands before the tour started after Jimmy off-handily mentioned how much he enjoyed tea.

He believed there was some sleepy-time tea stashed away somewhere in the pantry behind Big B’s meal prep and a ridiculous amount of cereal boxes. He was going to brew up a cup then head straight back to bed; a feeble attempt to get rest before their show tonight.

However, as he entered the main area, he was met with an unexpected sight.

Several of the stage hands and a few of his tourmates were in the common area, despite the horrid time of day.

Skizz was talking to some of the crew, seemingly explaining something that Jimmy couldn’t comprehend this early in the morning. Gem seemed to be pacing around the place before she walked down the steps; exiting the bus.

That’s when Jimmy noticed the bus wasn’t moving.

Looking out the window, the blonde watched Gem walk over to join Scott, who seemed to be on call with someone. The other vocalist was wandering around outside, aimlessly pacing around the bus in his plaid teal-and-white pajama pants and white tank top.

If Jimmy wasn’t already distracted by the strange situation, his mind would've been freaking out that him and Scott were basically matching; the blonde himself in a black tank top and pajama shorts, his red-and-black flannel thrown on lazily thanks to the cold environment they have been driving through.

Or rather we were driving through.

“So you’re telling me the engine died?” Skizz questions one of the stage crew, the person responding with a nod.

“Wait, the engine died?” Jimmy can’t help but ask out, earning a jump from the guitarist.

“Oh good morning Jiggles, you look lovely this morning! Did you um.. Do something new with your hair?” Skizz rambles, earning an unimpressed look from Jimmy.

“The engine died?” Jimmy asks again, crossing his arms while doing so.

“That’s what we believe.” The guitarist responds, trying his best to recover from the awkward interaction. “The tires seemed all good, nothing was out of place, and the road was perfectly clear; it’s basically the only thing that could’ve gone wrong.”

The vocalist nods and turns his attention towards the big windows once again. After about a month on the road, it was weird to see the environment outside the glass stand perfectly still. Well, all standing still aside from Scott, who was now getting on his knees to look underneath the side of the bus.

The other vocalist didn’t seem to have his attention fixed on the engine, something else seemingly catching his eyes.

“That’s no good, what’s the delay looking like?” Jimmy asks out, still nodding in-and-out of consciousness.

“That’s a really good question.” Skizz attempts a laugh, but it comes off as more of a sigh. “Considering we’re in the mountains with a very weak signal, we might miss dress rehearsals.”

They stood in silence for a little bit, just taking in the situation before Skizz groaned; heading towards the sleeping quarters.

“I’m gonna go get Joel.” Was the only explanation the guitarist gave  before leaving. Jimmy let out a weak smile when he realized the Skizz was also warning him in case he was still mad and didn’t want to be around the drummer.

Even with tensions at an all time high, the Rejects were still the absolute best. Around this time, Impulse and Big B woke up as well; walking into the main area to survey the situation, and Jimmy took it upon himself to start brewing tea for the whole crew.

Joel eventually came out of the sleeping quarters, sporting a lovely ‘I ♡ My Girlfriend’ T-shirt and some red shorts with his sleep-filled eyes. Jimmy wordlessly handed the drummer some tea, Joel greeting him with the same unreadable expression the drummer reserved for Scott.

“Thank you.” Joel muttered before fishing his phone out of his pocket and dialing a number. His phone rang for a few seconds before it went to voicemail.

“Great, the tour manager is probably asleep.” Joel complains to no one in particular. Time zones were always a tricky thing on tour; probably having an hour difference between the band and their studio on good days, and a solid four to five hours on bad days.

Jimmy hummed, turning his focus back to the teas in front of him, mixing honey into two of the cups. He only had to give Scott and Gem their tea before his task was complete, and luckily it seemed like the two were about to enter the bus.

Gem entered first, exhaustion clear on her face as she practically crawled up the steps to the bus, graciously taking her tea from Jimmy. Scott entered next, still on the phone, but whispered a quiet 'thank you' to Jimmy regardless when grabbing his tea. The other vocalist took a sip of the drink before heading to the kitchen and adding a packet of sugar into the cup.

“Gotcha, we can definitely look into that!” Scott exclaims to the other person on the line with him. “It makes sense with all the shaky terrain of the mountains. Yeah yes of course, thank you so much, it was nice talking to you again, Ms Watcher.”

That was the exact moment all the tension over the past couple of days completely crashed into the bands; striking the bus like a thunder bolt.  The room went dead silent as Scott ended his call and stared at everyone; confusion clear on his face.

“Where did you get the tour manager's number?” Joel asks out, his empty, unreadable expression making its appearance for the hundredth time that morning.

“I had it saved to my phone.” Scott answered as he took a sip of his tea, narrowing his focus exclusively towards Joel. “She’s actually the one who called me asking us to go on tour with you guys.”

The room was silent. For the most part, Joel and Scott didn’t let their feud affect their other bandmates; trying to prevent their obvious tension from affecting how the bands worked together. However, it’s early in the morning and caution was thrown to the wind the moment the bus stopped in the middle of the road.

Jimmy was terrified.

Finally, after all this time, the vocalist was able to read Joel’s empty expression. It wasn’t an easy expression to pin-point, different hues of anger and exhaustion mixed within the drummer's face, but it hit the vocalist like a truck.

Joel was haunted by Scott.

“I didn’t know you had her number.” Joel speaks out as he tunnel-visioned on the other vocalist, everyone else on the bus disappearing from view.

“I have it saved from when I was still in the label.” Scott shrugged, shooting Joel an annoyed look. “She was always so nice to me after everything that happened, it would be a shame to cut her off.”

“You didn’t need to call her.” Joel says, a hint of annoyance creeping into his tone. “That’s my job, they trusted me to watch over the tour.”

“Don’t lie to yourself.” Scott deadpans. “They expected both of us to share that responsibility the moment they proposed this tour; why the hell else would we not have a tour manager join us on the road?”

“Scott.” Joel starts, rubbing his temple with his free hand. “You didn’t need to deal with the label, I would’ve liked to cal-.”

“Oh so you don’t like people doing things behind your back… shocker.”

That’s when all the gathered tension in the room snapped like a bolt of lightning, crashing down onto the bus. Jimmy had one second to make eye contact with Gem and Impulse, concerned stare matching concern stare, before Joel slammed his own phone onto the counter.

“Fine, fucking play manager and see where it gets you.” Joel shouts, storming outside of the bus. “Since you’re all buddy-buddy with the label and all.”

Skizz and Big B were quick to follow Joel into the frigid outside; quick to accept the mission of calming down their bandmate. Jimmy, however, just stood in shock, the grip on his tea tightening as he turned to stare towards Scott.

With a sigh, the other vocalist spoke up. “You should probably join your bandmates, Jim.”

Never to deny Scott anything, Jimmy left.

His bandmates were just out of view from the common room windows; Joel sitting on a random fallen tree and Skizz crouched down in front of him; holding the drummer in a hug. Big B walked over with a blanket he most likely snatched from the storage bay.

As the vocalist approached; he was greeted with Joel's eyes, and the tears that were falling out of them, despite the drummer's clear effort of holding them back. Jimmy wanted to walk over and comfort his friend, the same way Joel has done for him several times throughout their time on and off the road.

However, as the vocalist walked over to do just that, he watched as Joel's face returned to the haunted expression Jimmy identified earlier. The drummer's grip tightened around Skizz’s shoulders and his breath quickened in a matter of seconds; making it obvious the the vocalist was the cause of Joel's stress.

The guitarist took note of this immediately and slightly turned to face Jimmy while still holding the drummer.

“Hey Jiggles, can you do me a huge favor and check the engine while we try to get in contact with a mechanic?” Skizz asks and Jimmy just nods.

It was clear that, in the moment, calling a mechanic was the last thing on everyone’s mind. The guitarist was sending Jimmy away the same way a parent would send away an easily-distracted child, and the vocalist was well aware of that fact.

So, he walked away from his band, standing awkwardly near the front of the bus while pretending to do something. The last thing he wanted to do was further damage the bus by pretending like he knew what he was doing.

From here, he could see Gem and the Scott’s inside the bus. Scott was standing in the same position as before, cup of tea still in his hands as Gem and Impulse appeared to be interrogating him.

Gem was leaning into Scott’s space, waving her arms around as she talked, while Impulse stood to the side and rubbed the man's shoulder. If Jimmy didn’t know any better it almost seemed like they were trying to play good cop, bad cop on the poor man.

At one point, Scott made direct eye contact with Jimmy through the window, and it took everything in the vocalist to not collapse on the spot in embarrassment. Everything just felt awkward right now; he wasn’t wanted by the Reject’s and Gem and the Scott’s were dealing with their own bullshit.

So that left Jimmy alone.

Feeling out of options and too tired to do anything remotely productive aside from making a few cups of tea, the vocalist started circling around the bus.

After a couple of rounds, Jimmy realized there were some grooves carved into the side of the bus; not acknowledging them at first, he walked past them a couple more times for him to finally notice what they were. They were ladder steps.

Having nothing better to do, Jimmy began to climb up the side of the bus. He nearly slipped and fell, but luckily he was able to recover before embarrassing himself. Once he was at the top of the bus, he was greeted with the beautiful sight of the canyon they were stopped at in all of its glory.

There was a dip on the left of the bus that led to a sprawling spruce forest, tree spanning for all the eye could see. Between the trees, there seemed to be dirt trails navigating around the greenery, guiding hikers to a final destination, wherever that may be. Jimmy didn’t know who was insane enough to hike at five in the morning, but whatever floats their boat.

Peaking past the spruce lined mountains in the distance, the vocalist watched as the sun rose. The sky was no longer reminiscent of Scott’s irises as it got polluted with a variety of orange and pink hues.

The vocalist wished he could restart the morning and be uninterrupted as he grabbed his cup of tea. Being able to appreciate this view from the comfortable heat inside the bus and the soothing feeling of the road moving underneath his feet. However, that wasn’t the morning he had.

So, Jimmy sipped his luke-warm tea while watching the sun announce the beginning of the day; with the sounds of Joel holding back sobs and Scott avoiding the topic with his bandmates in the background.

Something was off.

Something was seriously wrong.

* . °•★| 1:40 ───ㅇ───── 3:13 |☆•° . *

The show was not their best, Jimmy will be the first to admit that. After the whole problem with the bus got sorted; turns out the battery just shook out of place while driving up the mountain terrain, they were way behind schedule.

The show was delayed for about an hour, however there is only so much you can delay before you should probably just cancel the show. In order to avoid doing just that, the bands got ready while still traveling over to the venue, taking turns changing in the bathroom and doing makeup in the front mirrors of the bus.

It was rough to say the least.

Even Gem and the Scott’s seemed off their game today, which is the first time in this entire tour where the vocalist has genuinely seen them struggle to put on a show. However, Jimmy wasn’t much better.

Although his voice was back to normal from his previous illness, his energy was still working towards the same recovery. So, dealing with that, on top of barely getting any sleep the night before, along with the tense start to the morning, Jimmy just wanted to collapse in his bunk and forget about his lackluster performance.

However, he couldn’t even do that.

He snapped out of his thoughts by a sharp alarm going off in his ears, the laundry machine he was staring into slowed to a stop as he rubbed his eyes awake. It was laundry day.

Standing up from the stiff bench in the closest laundry mat to the venue, Jimmy moved his clothes and bedsheets to a dryer, slotting a few coins into the machine to start its cycle.

Given the morning they had, Jimmy decided to grab the laundry of all of his bandmates, in order to help them in one way. So, he poured out Skizz’s laundry and started the machine.

Sitting on a bench away from him was Gem and Impulse, sharing some kind of silent conversation with each other as they waited for their own laundry to be done for the night. Jimmy hated to interrupt their thoughts, but he was seriously going to pass out if he didn’t start a conversation with someone, so after he cleared his throat, the vocalist spoke up.

“Scott retired for the night?”

Both of the bandmates turned to look at him in sync, scarily so.

“Yeah.” Gem speaks up, exhaustion clear in her voice. “Long day.”

Jimmy just hummed at the response, about to return to staring at the washing machine aimlessly, that was until he caught a glimpse of Impulse. The drummer’s leg was bouncing up and down, his face seemed five times paler than usual, and he was staring directly at the vocalist.

“Hey Impulse.” Jimmy greets, trying to understand the man's weird change in behavior. “I have some of my Advil left, if you need any, you kinda seem a little ill.”

At the offer, Impulse squeaked out a quick, “I’m fine.” before turning his attention to the floor.

Weird, but whatever.

Gem and Jimmy made eye contact, both giving each other a questioning look before turning their attention back to the drummer.

“Okay fine!” Impulse shouts as Jimmy makes eye contact with him again. “Gem and I think there’s something wrong between Joel and Scott. Not like in a ‘you stole my food’ kinda way, but in a ‘you’ve hurt me so I will ruin your life in every single universe’ kinda way.”

The quick confession stunned Jimmy and Gem into laughter, leaving Impulse confused on the bench.

“God Imp you are the worst liar ever.” Gem laughs out, secretly whipping a tear from her eyes at her bandmates antics.

“There was so much pressure!” Impulse defends, standing up from the bench and beginning to pace around them. “The way he looked at me, it seemed like he was trying to read my entire being!”

That just got more of a laugh out of the group, Gem basically doubling over as she forces a weak, “Never change Impulse.” from her lips.

After everyone calmed down from the unexpected laughing fit, Jimmy was the first to speak up.

“You definitely are a bad liar.” Jimmy backs up, getting another laugh from Gem. “However, yeah, something's been up with Scott and Joel ever since the tour started.”

“Yeah one-hundred percent.” Gem agrees, leaning back on her palms. “Scott has never been so tense and anxious about performances before this; suddenly we’re on the road and he is avoiding plans and only leaving the bus to go out on stage.”

Jimmy didn’t entirely notice that before, but Gem was right. Scott is yet to join his tourmates out for drinks or even explore the cities they were in before heading back on the road. The only time the vocalist has seen Scott leave the bus aside from shows and basic chores was when they went to get tea together last week, and Jimmy totallllyyyyy didn’t blush at that realization.

“Yeah I can see that.” Jimmy says, covering his face by mocking a yawn. “ Joel’s been weird recently too; been a lot more anxious and overbearing about random things. He also always leaves the room when Scott enters if he can help it.”

That got a nod from Gem and an analytical look from Impulse.

“Maybe they knew each other when they worked under the label?” Impulse suggests, earning an unimpressed look from Gem.

“It’s obvious they definitely knew each other before this.” Gem speaks up. “I mean you saw Scott the day we were prepping for tour, he’s never been that pressed before.”

Impulse conceded before looking over to Jimmy.

“Maybe Scott used to sing for the Rejects, since Jim is new and all?”

“No.” Jimmy denied immediately, grabbing the attention of the other two.  “I don’t know all the details, but the old vocalist left on bad terms with my bandmates. There’s no way they would be treating Scott nearly as nice if they used to work with him.”

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, trying to think of other theories, the only sound in the room coming from the rattling of laundry machines and another person across the store dropping some change, cursing silently.

“Maybe they toured together?” Impulse threw out, and the suggestion hung in the air as everyone considered it.

“That… actually would make a lot of sense.” Jimmy admits, still wrapping his mind around the theory. “I know Joel was signed to another band before the Rejects, so it wouldn’t be out of question that he and Scott met and toured together in their separate bands.”

“Scott’s mentioned touring before in his old band as well.” Gem adds on, fiddling with her sweater’s sleeves as she thought. “From what we gathered he didn’t enjoy it all that much... could’ve been because his and Joel’s bands were traveling together?”

It seemed so obvious now that it was laid out in the open. Of course Scott and Joel had a history with each other, rather than just hating each other for the sake of it. Jimmy should’ve put two-and-two together sooner considering he saw their ‘first’ interaction back on the bus where Scott told the drummer to back off.

“Scott probably left the label because of his drama with Joel.”

That statement from Jimmy is what made the three realise the extent of this issue. Joel could’ve been the very reason Scott left the industry… and now the two enemies were stuck on a twelve by three meter bus.

Oh god.

“Oh no.” Gem spoke first, her hands going completely still in her shock.

“Yeah, oh no.” Impulse repeats, sharing a look with his friend.

Jimmy watched as the two bandmates, once again, had a silent conversation with each other, sparing looks of panic with each expression.

“Did Joel tell you anything about this before the tour?” Gem asks, her face attempting to mask any emotion she was feeling.

“No.” Jimmy responds. “Most he mentioned was that Scott used to work with the label, but that’s all.”

“We shouldn’t have agreed to do this.” Impulse said, standing up from the bench once again to continue his pacing. “If I knew this would make him uncomfortable I would’ve never- we wouldn’t have-”

As Impulse continues his own muttering underneath his breath, Gem turns to Jimmy to stare at him. It was almost as if Gem believed the staring would provide context to what her bandmate was rambling about, and when it didn’t, she let out a disappointed sigh.

“Scott was hesitant to do this tour.” The bassist admits as she leans back on her laundry bag. “We thought he was anxious about it because of finals week and balancing school with being on the road; but it’s kinda clear there was more on his mind than that.”

Just like that the tension that the three tourmates worked so hard to break down returned to the room. They had just found out something they shouldn’t have; Joel and Scott can’t find out they know.

It’s pretty obvious they’ve been trying to keep their feud somewhat under wraps while they’ve been traveling, and they clearly don’t want their bandmates to know the truth.

“Hey Impulse.” Jimmy speaks up, grabbing the attention of the two bandmates across from him. “You better learn how to keep a secret, and fast.”

▄ █ ▄ █ ▄ ▄ █ ▄ █ ▄ 

Min- – – ♡ – – – – -Max

As Jimmy stepped off stage after the encore, he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. They were officially halfway through his first tour.

Despite the tension between him and the Rejects and the looming truth of Joel and Scott’s past hanging over his head; Jimmy was going around hyping everyone up over the milestone.

“We have to go out and get drinks or something!” Jimmy claims to Gem and the Scotts, who were packing up their things in the dressing room. “It’s only halfway through your first tour once!”

“I appreciate the offer,” Scott says while throwing a white messenger bag over his shoulder; the band's makeup and face paint shuffling around with the bag's movement. “But I have to get started on my animation final, trying to take advantage of the break and all. You guys have fun though!”

Jimmy thankfully had the forethought to hold back his pout at the rejection; turning to face Gem and Impulse, who were both sharing a concerned look with each other. It was true that the other vocalist had a lot of course work to prepare for; however the tourmates had a full week of travel-free fun ahead of them! Surely one round of drinks won’t kill Scott... surely.

While Scott was heading towards the exit, he nearly took a door to the face as Skizz barged in the dressing room; loudly exclaiming, “Halfway through, baby!”

Big B followed behind the guitarist, checking if Scott was okay after nearly being taken out by the door… that lucky door.

The mood was high-energy and mostly everyone was hyped, that was until Joel walked into the room. Scott crossed his arms;  and Gem and Jimmy immediately sent a warning look towards Impulse, who already seemed a few shades lighter than usual.

“I have a surprise for you lot!” Joel announced while walking into the room, avoiding Scott’s gaze for dear life.

“Since we’re gonna be stationed up in the city this week while we prepare for the next leg of the tour, I figured we should give the stage crew a break from our antics.” The drummer exclaims, while reaching into his pocket. “After a few calls with the label, I got us hotel rooms!”

The energy in the room went from a small flame to the size of a forest fire in less than a second.

The group erupted in cheers at simply the idea of living in a stationary place for one week. Touring in the bus had been fun and all, but with all the tension and arguments arising as of late, this couldn’t have come at a better time.

Joel started handing out the room keys; Gem getting a solo, Scott and Impulse were sharing, then Skizz and Big B were also sharing. Using the process of elimination, Jimmy felt a shiver run up his spine. Him and Joel were sharing a room. Him and Joel were going to have to talk.

“Aw but I wanted to share with Jiggles.” Skizz speaks up, also realizing how the room situation might be a problem. “Surely we could switch if we wanted to.”

As Big B pretended to be offended by his bandmate’s comment, he also made his concern clear by giving Joel a look.

“You guys can switch, that’s perfectly fine!” Joel reassures. “Just switch keys and tell your roommates so there’s no confusion.”

Skizz gave Jimmy a knowing look, as if trying to assure him through his eyes.

“Hate to break it to you Skizz.” Jimmy starts, throwing an arm around Joel’s shoulders. “I quite like our room arrangements.”

Getting a playful scoff from Skizz, the topic was dropped immediately. Jimmy knew this feud couldn’t go on forever, and after what he found out with the help of Gem and Impulse a few nights ago, Joel cancelling a show didn’t seem all that important anymore.

“Alright, what are we waiting for? I want to see if the hotel has a pool.” Gem announces, heading towards the exit, everyone else following her lead despite the bassist being unaware of where she was going.

Eventually Joel took the lead, walking the group a few blocks down to this lovely motel. It wasn’t the definition of luxury, the moss on the walls failing to hide the several cracks in the paint, however it had a functional shower and a pool, so it was good enough for the group.

A few minutes later, the bus pulled into a few empty parking spaces that came with the rooms, so the bands were able to grab their bags after getting checked in. The room Joel and Jimmy were stuck with was interesting to say the least; everything in it was some shade of green.

The walls had a mint-green gingham wallpaper lining them, matching the comforters that laid on top of the two beds. The carpet with one-too-many stains in it was a dark, almost grayish green; time having a clear effect on the textile with the color seemingly faded.

An old tv sat in the corner, looking like something straight out of the 90’s with its boxed shape and the cable wire running into the wall. Outside the window there was a small pool, the water being illuminated a neon blue in the dark of the night.

As enticing as a late night swim would be, Jimmy had his eyes on the prize. The vocalist immediately called dibs on the shower first; Joel tried to object, but clearly didn’t care all that much.

Bathroom bag in hand, Jimmy headed into the small room. As to be expected, the titles were a checker board pattern of green and white, the curtain being green as well. The room didn’t look the cleanest, but Jimmy brought his shower shoes for a reason.

God, Jimmy missed the feeling of being able to take a shower without anxiety of the bus leaving the rest-stop without him or random strangers getting mad that he was taking too long. The vocalist gave his scalp a much deserved clean after the weeks of rushed washes and neglect, putting in all the hair products that he’s been ignoring ever since the tour started.

Once out of the shower, Jimmy actually took the time to do his skin care routine as well. Between the exhaustion of constant travel and late night performances, the blonde has put selfcare on the back burner, and it has started to become a bit obvious.

He had a small amount of acne beginning to form on his face, even a black head or two hiding from his view. So, his eight-step skin routine; although very extra according to his siblings, was much needed in the current moment. Skizz didn't call him the diva of the band for nothing.

Once the blonde was feeling thoroughly cleansed of his time on the bus, he quickly dried off and threw on a pair of random pajamas before leaving the room.

Joel was laying on the bed closest to the window, on facetime with someone Jimmy recognized immediately by her pink hair.

“Tell Lizzie I said hi!” Jimmy shouts at Joel, startling the drummer with the sudden noise.

“Bro warn a dude next time or something!” Joel shouts as he recovers from his mild heart-attack. “Jimmy says hey, Liz.”

There was some kind of back and forth between the two, Joel’s headphones preventing the vocalist from eavesdropping, before Joel turned back to his bandmate.

“Lizzie is thrilled that we’re sharing a hotel room by the way.”

There was some playful shouting that Jimmy could vaguely hear from the drummer's headphones, filling the room with laughter.

“Don’t worry Lizzie, there’s two beds, I swear!” Jimmy shouts, and as if proving the point, he starts getting settled on the bed closest to the bathroom.

They stayed like that for a bit; Jimmy scrolled on his phone and attempted to watch something on the ancient relic lying in the corner of the room while Joel catched Lizzie up on everything that had happened since their last call, which was that morning.

Eventually Lizzie hangs up; mentioning this silly thing called sleep that she apparently needs to live. So after much lamenting, Joel hangs up the call and lets out a groan. The room was silent, tension seeping in through the cracks in the walls and under the floorboards.

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Joel states, looking vaguely in Jimmy’s direction, but not meeting the blonde's eyes.

“No, no.” Jimmy says, rubbing his face while sitting up in his bed. “I wanna talk about it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The room went silent, neither one of the bandmates wanting to initiate what is guaranteed to be a rough discussion. However, with a sigh, Jimmy speaks up.

“I’m glad you also think it’s weird that the tv still has cable.”

That got a pillow thrown in his face and a laugh from Joel; the conversation could've started worse.

After Joel took some time to recover from the joke that shouldn’t have been as funny as it was, Jimmy spoke up… for real this time.

“I’m sorry, Joel.” The vocalist turned to face the wall, learning that it was much easier to confront this issue while not staring directly at his friend. “You were right for cancelling the show. It was one hundred percent the best call to make and I couldn’t see that through my anxiety. "

The room fell silent  again, and Jimmy was waiting for a quippy ‘I told you so’ or ‘I know, I’m the best’; however, that never came.

“I’m sorry too.” Joel says, facing the same wall as the vocalist.

“For what?” Jimmy asks, finally taking the initiative to look over at the drummer.

“I was..” Joel takes a few more seconds to gather his thoughts before continuing. “I’ve had a lot of trouble in the past when it comes to my bandmates lying to me. Between old bands and a certain old vocalist… I’ve just dealt with a lot of lies from people I chose to trust.”

Jimmy listened intently, and for the second time this week, he saw tears begin to form in Joel’s eyes.

“It’s become a huge insecurity of mine, constantly worrying about my bandmates feeling the need to hide things from me, like I’m not trustworthy of knowing things. Or worse, they're scared to tell me things. ”

“Joel I-”

“Don’t.” Joel interrupted as he wiped a tear from his eye. “This isn’t about me and my stupid insecurities. I took a lot of that stress and anger from over the years out on you and that wasn’t fair.”

After the confession, the two men were silent, letting their thoughts ruminate in the air before addressing them. What was there to even address? Jimmy didn’t want to begin prying and create more tension between him and the drummer, so he settled on something that could be considered humorous.

“That old vocalist did a number on you, didn’t he?” Jimmy jokes, earning a weak laugh from Joel.

“He wasn’t the worst of it.”

“For real?”

“For real, for real.”

The two couldn’t help laughing at their stupid banter, months of friendship slowly creeping its way into the serious conversation and making the atmosphere much more comfortable. As if no matter is said in this room, they will still leave the space as best friends, much to the chagrin of Skizz and Big B.

“For the record,” Jimmy says, welcoming the new wave of comfort as he sunk into his mattress. “I wasn’t hiding the fact that I was ill because of you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Jimmy confirms. “I was more worried about disappointing the fans that were looking forward to the show that day; and also taking away a performance from Gem and the Scotts.”

At the mention of the other band, Jimmy watched as Joel's face morphed back into the haunted expression that the vocalist was becoming more and more familiar with.

“You talked with Scott about all of this I’m assuming?” Joel asks, catching Jimmy off guard.

“How’d you know that?” The vocalist asked, getting a laugh from his friend.

“I left the bus when you began throwing a proper fit, a few minutes later you and Scott are going out to have a tea party.” Joel explains, humor clear in his tone as he tells the events from his perspective. They do seem very silly when he explains them like that.

“We talked a little about it.” Jimmy admits, fidgeting with the cheap bed sheets underneath him. “Not much, but he agreed with what you did. Canceling the show.”

The statement forced yet another wave of silence into the room; however this one lasted longer than the others. The quiet felt suffocating; the droning of the AC unit and old TV being the only sounds daring enough to fill the room.

That was, at least, until Jimmy heard a sniffle from Joel’s bed. Once again the drummer found himself unable to hide the tears that were falling down his face.

If the vocalist had an American coin that represents five cents every time Joel wasn't able to hold back his tears this past week, Jimmy would have two of those coins; which isn’t a lot, but it was unusual to say the least.

Jimmy couldn’t help but theorize as to why that sentence was officially the thing to break Joel. Scott mentioned the many times he probably shouldn’t have performed when they talked last week, and Joel confessed about his insecurity. The two had to be connected somehow; but as Joel attempts, and fails, to hold back a sob, Jimmy couldn’t have cared less.

“Deep breaths for me.” Jimmy soothes as he walks over and sits on the edge of Joel’s bed, rubbing a soothing hand up and down his back.

The drummer tried to follow the instructions to the best of his ability, choking on his own lungs before finally getting in a strangled breath. Then another. Then another.

Slowly the drummer's breathing started to even out, the vocalist guiding him back to normalcy slowly but surely.

Surprisingly, the first thing Joel did once he was no longer trapped in his own mind was laugh, earning a confused look from Jimmy.

“You're on my bed.” Joel laughs out, his breaths sounding like sobs despite him no longer crying. “Lizzie wouldn’t be happy about that.”

Jimmy just rolled his eyes before responding, “To hell with what Lizzie thinks. Personally, I think she’d be glad I guided you out of a panic attack, but that's just me.”

That got another wet laugh out of Joel, the drummer quipping back with; “Whatever you say babe.”

The recurring joke coming back once again, Jimmy can't help but roll his eyes before responding; “You’re okay babe.”

“For real?”

“For real, for real.”

The two friends broke down laughing, all the tension that still lingered within the sketchy motel room completely vanished as they gasped for air, not because of panic attacks, but rather from pure enjoyment of each other's company.

“I missed this.” Joel said genuinely, still trying to catch this breath.

“Me too.”

 

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

Notes:

Hey y'all, I hope you enjoyed chapter 4!

Also, thank you so much for 100 kudos and 1,000 hits! I just checked my stats this morning and was absolutely blown away by all the support this fic has gotten! So thank you so much for your comments, kudos, and support; it genuinely makes my week :)

With all that being said, I will see you next friday!

Chapter 5

Notes:

This is my favorite chapter yet, I hope y'all enjoy the next eleven thousand words <3

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

 

“Would you do me the honor of… no that’s too formal-”

“I was wondering if you wanted to try out… Well now that’s too casual!”

“I saw you haven’t gone out much and I was wondering… well that’s just rude.”

Jimmy had a problem.

Well, it wasn’t really a problem per say; more so a conundrum.

It’s been about three days since the bands have settled down at the motel, and almost every single day was filled to the brim with celebration. The bands would hang out together all day, then begin to start bar-hopping until they passed out; rinse and repeat until this very moment.

The problem with all of this though is that Scott is yet to join in on any of the plans.

Now that’s fine. Scott is probably keeping himself busy with his animation final; there is no doubt about it. However, Jimmy is a little bit down bad for the other vocalist; and going from seeing him everyday to once or twice in passing… it's taken a toll on the blonde to say the least.

Jimmy loves hanging with the Reject’s and the other members of Gem and the Scotts, don’t get him wrong, but there was only one member of the other band that made Jimmy blush with just one look from those incomparably beautiful eyes.

The vocalist also couldn’t help but worry about Scott. Ever since him, Gem, and Impulse discovered the beef between him and Joel was much more complex than they could have ever imagined; Jimmy wanted to make sure the other vocalist didn’t feel left out of plans just because Joel was also there.

It was silly to worry about such a thing; considering Scott was a grown adult that was capable of making his own decisions, but nonetheless, Jimmy worried.

So, he devised a plan!

Jimmy was going to walk up to Scott’s room, knock and wait for the other vocalist to answer, then smoothly ask if he wanted to grab lunch nearby. It was a simple plan, surely not much could go wrong.

The only thing preventing the blonde from walking down the hall right now was, ‘What the hell was he going to say?’

The plan is in motion; but going to lunch means small talk, and small talk means getting to know each other, getting to know each other means dating, and dating basically means getting married and living in domestic bliss surrounded by poppies and pufferish-

Jimmy needs to calm down.

It’s just lunch.

He can do lunch.

Jimmy looks at his reflection in the mirror once more. What was supposed to be a quick check to make sure he looked somewhat presentable became a rehearsal of what to say for Scott; but could you blame him?

Jimmy didn’t want to mess this up. This is the first time he and Scott would hang out without it relating back to the tour one way or another. Every time the two vocalists have been alone together the blonde has always been in some kind of state.

Whether that was having a panic attack by a dumpster outside of the curse venue, or his fit of anger whenever Joel rightfully cancelled a show for him; Scott was there to help him through his emotions. Jimmy, although very much appreciating the efforts, wants to interact with Scott beyond the other vocalist comforting him at his worst.

Right now there is no stress of the tour, no fans to impress, and no tension between Jimmy and his tourmates. Which means no excuses for Scott to hang out with him, so he had to do this.

Smoothing out his hair one last time, Jimmy took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom. His room was empty; Joel no doubt out with Lizzie, who decided to travel down for a couple days during the break.

Jimmy didn’t spend much time in the room, just grabbing his phone and wallet before leaving the space. The motel’s layout was rather simple, just rows of doors lining the patio, all listed with unique numbers.

All the tourmate’s rooms were lined up next to each other, so it wasn’t much of a journey to walk over to Scott and Impulse’s room, though it felt like an eternity to the vocalist.

On his way to the door, Jimmy was able to come up with a fairly simple scripted phrase:

‘Hey, I was just wondering if you wanted to go grab lunch together? It’ll be on me as a thank you for the tea. ’

Short, simple, and solves the issue of who is paying. Then hopefully the vocalist could manage his nerves enough to make small talk about random things; the tour, course work, the motel they were staying at, literally anything.

Jimmy’s got this, he just has to stick to the script.

Taking a deep breath, the vocalist knocks on the door, and after a couple seconds there was no response. Jimmy gazed into the small window to try and catch some kind of movement, yet there was nothing.

It simply must be a sign from whatever deity is watching over the vocalist; so Jimmy turns away from the door and heads back to his room in slight relief and defeat.

“Looking for Impulse?”

Jimmy felt his veins run cold. Turning back to the door, there was still no movement, however Scott was standing outside of Gem’s room; holding open her door.

“Pretty sure he went out with Skizz to grab some groceries or something.”

The blonde couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe as he made eye contact with the other vocalist. You would think after living together for basically a month, being acknowledged by the other man would get easier, but Jimmy was dealing with the same issues he was that fateful morning back on the bus.

“Um-” Jimmy stutters. Just follow the script. “No no, I was actually looking for you.”

That got Scott’s attention, closing Gem’s door as the blonde worked to gather his thoughts. However, the other vocalist seemed to be focused on something else entirely.

“Your hair looks cute, did you do something different with it?”

The script was fully destroyed with that one sentence. Actually, it was that one sentence that made Jimmy realize just how foolish he was to even believe there could be a script. There was no script. Jimmy was stranded.

“I-I washed it.” Was the only thing Jimmy’s fried brain could get out of his mouth, immediately regretting his efforts to try and respond.

“I mean I always wash it-” Jimmy defends, trying to save this situation before Scott thinks he’s a total weirdo that doesn't wash his hair on a regular basis. “I just washed it... more than... usual.”

“Right.” Scott says, clearly trying to hold back a smile at the blonde’s embarrassing display. “Anyway, why'd ya need me?”

Forget deep breaths, Jimmy just needed to breathe.

“I-I was wondering if you’re not busy, totally okay if you are, we could maybe grab lunch together. On me, as a thank you.” The blonde manages to say, praying the words were coherent as they left his mouth.

Scott was silent for a moment, standing still as Jimmy began to spiral.

“As I said, it’s totally okay if you’re too busy, I just thought it would be fun to try out this place Joel and his girlfriend recommended a day or so ago.”

Before Jimmy could spiral even more that he was suggesting he and Scott go to a place Lizzie went with Joel, you know, HER BOYFRIEND; Scott interrupts the vocalist.

“Oh, I didn’t know Lizzie was visiting.”

Thankfully that one sentence was able to confuse Jimmy out of his panic.

“You know Lizzie?” Jimmy asks, receiving a nod from the other man.

“Her and I know each other; we used to be pretty close but, y’know.” Scott circled his wrist in a repeated motion, leaving Jimmy to try and understand what he meant. “And lunch sounds great, I was getting kinda sick of the room service food anyway.”

A win is a win. God Jimmy didn’t deserve this win after that performance; but regardless, the blonde will take it. There’s a reason he went into music rather than acting.

Scott quickly dipped into Gem’s room again, re-emerging with his tablet in hand. Jimmy’s brain, despite still being fried from the previous interaction, was thankfully able to see the tablet and remember a prompt for small talk.

“Still working on the final?” Jimmy asks as he pulls up directions for the restaurant he picked out. It was only a few blocks away, but the blonde wasn’t gonna chance getting lost and embarrassing himself further.

“Yeah.” Scott replies after fully checking he closed Gem’s door. “Not even close to being done with it, but slowly making progress.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what's the project?” With the question, the two started their journey down the block.

“It’s for my 2D Animation Course, basically I have to create a fluid fourty-five second animation that showcases some kind of movement.” Scott explains as the two walk. “I decided to do an action scene of sorts for a story I came up with a while ago.”

“How far are you into animating?” Jimmy asks and Scott can’t help but laugh at the question.

“I haven’t even begun animating.” Scott shares, earning a concerned look from Jimmy. “I have to finish up my story boards and character sheets first, along with a general summary of the scene. I’m finished for the most part, but designing a certain character is giving me a lot of trouble.”

“Oh really?” Jimmy asks as the two turn a corner. The blonde never really prided himself on being good at talking to people, so he was thrilled as Scott carried the conversation while he was able to nod along. Plus, this way he gets to hear the other man's voice that little bit more.

“Yeah, I kinda added him last minute to round off the story, but I just keep thinking I can do more with him y’know?” Scott asks, knowing full well the blonde did, in fact, not know. “Like this character was originally only meant to be an ally to the main guy, but now they’re kinda leaning more towards lovers with how the story ends. "

Jimmy looked down at his phone to check if they were going in the right direction before once again giving his full attention to Scott.

“I mean, what was once supposed to be a throw away character is now representing what a ‘happy life’ means for the main character, and I don’t even know what the guy looks like!”

“Sounds like a struggle.” Jimmy laughs out at Scott's predicament, the restaurant just coming into view over the street corner.

“It’s whatever.” Scott sighs, attempting to reign in his frustration from the course work. “I’m probably gonna start animating tonight, that character doesn’t show up till around the end, so I should be in the clear once I finish up the story boards.”

Jimmy doesn’t even know what a story board is, but he nods in agreement anyway, because god he just wants to hear Scott keep talking.

“Anyway, what about you?” Scott asks, and Jimmy fights the urge to freeze in place.

“What about me?” The blonde asked while holding open the door for the other man.

When entering the restaurant, it looked exactly how it did online. It was a small little bistro, most likely family owned; a bar lining the back wall with a few stools leaning against it. A few booths were scattered around the place, some populated by familiar people while others were waiting for company.

The seats that caught the attention of the two men, however, were the barstools by the window. They were honestly nothing special, just a couple of barstools lining the counter attached to the window seal, but it felt fairly isolated from everyone else, while still providing a good atmosphere.

“What have you been up to since the break?” Scott clarifies while settling in his seat, picking up a menu.

“Honestly not much?” Jimmy answers to the best of his ability, after all Scott was asking him a question. “Mostly just been going out with the bands, grabbing drinks, getting dragged into something stupid, the usual.”

“Impulse was telling me about last night.” Scott says, trying to hold back a smile. “Is it actually true he started a podcast last night with Skizz while they were six drinks deep?”

Jimmy laughed, unable to suppress his smile the way Scott somehow managed to.

“Yeah, it was around four in the morning give or take.” Jimmy explains, the memory fuzzy on his mind. “The two were having one of their typical late-night discussions and managed to steal a pair of microphones from the bus, and just started filming it.”

Halfway through the explanation Scott sets down the menu he was looking at, turning his full attention to the blonde, raising a hand to rest his chin on the center of his palm.

“Impulse was very pressed about…” Jimmy considered his words carefully before continuing. “Keeping a secret from a friend back home, so he interviewed everyone who hadn't already passed out about what they would do in his situation. Somehow in his state he managed to upload the 'podcast episode' to spotify before passing out himself, promptly deleting it the moment he woke up. ”

“The amount of money I would pay to hear what the hell that episode sounds like rivals my tuition.” Scott jokes, getting a laugh out of Jimmy. “He’s keeping his only copy under lock and key. I think he showed it to Gem, but he absolutely refuses to share it with me.”

That’s probably for the best; Impulse was already bad at keeping a secret when sober, Jimmy REFUSES to believe the drummer didn’t name drop Scott multiple times during the recording. Luckily everyone was mostly black out enough to forget what the man said, but still, it was a risk.

“To my knowledge he hasn’t shared anything with the Rejects, maybe he’s just embarrassed or something?” Jimmy suggests, finally grabbing a menu to look at before he forgot to decide what his lunch was.

“Maybe? Though he’s never tried to hide embarrassing things from us in the past; I mean Gem and I are practically his siblings with the shit we’ve been through together.”

Jimmy was about to defend Impulse the best he could; trying to put some kind of damage control on the situation before Scott got suspicious of his bandmates behavior, but before the blonde could get a word in, the other vocalist spoke up.

“That reminds me, how are your siblings doing?”

Once again, the hypothetical rug slipped out from under Jimmy’s feet.

“How do you know about my siblings?”

“Remember you told me about them, back in-” Scott seemed to consider his words carefully before finishing the thought. “Back at the hometown show?”

“Oh I totally did, didn't I?” Jimmy laughs out. “In my defense I was distracted by… other things.”

What those other things were, Jimmy wasn’t going to elaborate further.

“I honestly haven’t called them in a minute, I should probably do that sometime today.” Jimmy shakes his head to avoid spacing off before continuing. “But my older sister Pearl is saving up to buy her own art studio right now, and my brother Grian is kinda just trying to make his way through Uni.”

“That’s good to hear. I was able to talk to them after the show that day, they seemed like good people.” Scott responds, and Jimmy mentally panics at the idea of Scott meeting his family… Grian in particular.

If his brother ever finds out about his crush, he will not hear the end of it.

“They’re amazing. Growing up, they were kinda the only family I had, so we’ve always been pretty close.” Jimmy responds, finally pin-pointing what to order on the menu.

Like clock work, a waiter walked up to the two men and took their orders; Scott ordered some kind of pasta dish while Jimmy ordered some soup with a side salad.

“Do you have any family of your own?” Jimmy asks, and almost immediately regrets it with the way Scott’s grip on his menu tightened.

“Kinda?” Scott responds, taking a sip from one of the waters a waiter brought to their station. “I had an older brother, but he ran away when I was just entering secondary school. Parents weren’t around a bunch to begin with, so I was mostly on my own.”

Jimmy felt the overwhelming urge to apologize for even considering asking a question about Scott’s family; finally understanding why people reacted awkwardly when he himself mentioned not having parents.

“Sorry to hear that.” Jimmy says, trying to balance the tight rope of being genuine but also not coming across as pitying. “At least you have Gem and Impulse now though, right?”

“Yeah.” Scott says, a beautiful smile spreading across his face. “Yeah, they’re great. You lot aren’t too bad either.”

“Glad to hear the Rejects aren’t a complete nuisance to be around.” Jimmy jokes as he grabs a piece of the complimentary bread. “I was beginning to think we were getting on your nerves.”

“You guys could never get on my nerves.” Scott playfully hit Jimmy’s shoulder. “Or well, most of you guys.”

If that wasn’t the most tempting opportunity in the world. It wouldn’t be out of nowhere if Jimmy asked about Joel; in fact, it almost felt like an invitation to discuss the burning topic. The blonde already believes he had a good understanding of what happened, but having everything explained  by Scott himself would be invaluable.

Jimmy, rather than asking the question, instead reeled himself in. It’s quite obvious that Scott and Joel didn’t want to share their past with the tourmates, and the blonde didn’t want to force the information out of Scott, especially when they were technically hanging out for the first time.

The vocalist had to watch his mouth.

“Glad to know I’m not the annoying one of the group then.” Jimmy settles on saying, getting a weak laugh out of Scott.

“Far from it.”

Lunch went by without any problems after that, or well, no major problems at least. Jimmy still felt as though he was having a heart attack whenever those beautifully indescribable eyes met his own, but luckily it didn’t seem to show.

The two vocalists just talked. Scott talking about some of his old embarrassing memories, Jimmy gossiping about how his brother accidentally went out with his classmate, and much much more.

For what seemed like a big problem before, Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh at how scared he was to confront Scott earlier that day. As they left the bistro together, returning to their separate rooms, Jimmy couldn't drop the smile from his face.

Problem solved, he supposed.

͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙ ♫ •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙

After the excitement of constantly going out, partying till he crashed, and then waking up with a hang over every morning; Jimmy needed a small reprieve from the cycle.

Although his drunken state has created some amazing memories; such as playing truth or dare with Joel and continuously calling each other bad boys, repeating phrases like ‘AHA’ or ‘BAM’ with Impulse and Lizzie until the three couldn’t breathe, and several failed prank attempts; he needed a break.

He found that break in the form of finally visiting the pool that the motel provided for its guests. Surprisingly, no one was there. However it was also six in the morning, so it really shouldn't be too much of a shock that Jimmy found himself alone.

Not trusting his hang over and deep water to mix well together, the blonde sat cross-legged in the shallow end, enjoying the cool feeling of the water flowing around his legs. The only sound accompanying him was the hum of the pool vacuum, which created an amazing white noise as Jimmy reflects on the past week.

These past six days have been an absolute blast and exactly what the bands needed. Between all the needless tension growing between the groups, and tourmates alike, having a week to fully forget about their problems was helpful to say the least.

Big B was no longer watching him whenever the bassist believed Jimmy looked the other way. Skizz no longer tip-toed around him, returning back to his caring self. Joel was able to let go of that haunted expression while talking to Jimmy, finally returning to the man the blonde met the day of his audition.

God, it was crazy to think back to his audition.

It was the last week of secondary school, graduation only a few days away. Jimmy is still surprised he managed to talk his way into graduating that year, his attendance chart was basically screaming for the school to hold him back.

The night before, Grian and Pearl sat the blonde down for a chat, talking about his plans after school. His siblings meant well by it, obviously, however the topic terrified their brother.

Jimmy never seemed to be passionate about anything, much less something he could pursue as a career, and his siblings were concerned for him. Jimmy concerned his siblings.

That night he couldn’t fall asleep; switching between doom-scrolling on his phone, browsing job listings, and attempting to get some rest. It was only a couple hours into this cycle that Jimmy saw the video that changed his life.

The blonde knew of the Rejects; they were pretty popular in his home town due to being local celebrities; so when he came across an analysis video about the previous vocalist being fired, it piqued his interest.

The video talked about how the Rejects started posting promotional material without the vocalist in it, which was strange to say the least, considering he was the fan favorite member.

Then, after a bit more doom-scrolling, Jimmy came across a video the Rejects made addressing the allegations. They confirmed the vocalist was no longer working with them and asked for space as they navigated this change.

Now, Jimmy never planned on becoming the new vocalist of the Rejects. However, seeing this video made the blonde realize Life Records might be looking for new talent, having an open spot when they replaced the vocalist with an already signed musician.

So, Jimmy decided to show up for their auditions the next day, dressing way too formal for the position. While everyone around him was wearing faded t-shirts and washed out jeans, Jimmy ‘borrowed’ a dress shirt from Grian’s wardrobe and was wearing his good pair of pants.

The music cards he brought were the songs he performed in choir. Needless to say he stuck out like a sore thumb.

When Jimmy was called into the studio for his audition, he was greeted by an empty room, only being filled with a table and the people sitting behind it. Some stared creepily, others looked like they were trying not to laugh at his outfit choice, and a few seemed uninterested.

Jimmy only recognized one person behind the table, the signature green streak in his hair being recognizable anywhere.

“Alright.” A feminine voice spoke up from the middle of the table, grabbing the attention of everyone. “Number 4, can you please tell us about yourself?”

Jimmy gripped the microphone stationed in front of him for dear life, trying to avoid completely embarrassing himself.

“M-my name is Jimmy Solidarity.” Mentally cursing his stutter, he continues. “I’ve been singing both professionally and casually for the past few years, I’m about to graduate secondary school and decided now's the time to shoot my shot at entering the industry.”

Jimmy didn’t know what he was expecting; but the silence as people wrote down god knows what in their notes was not enjoyable.

“Perfect, and what kind of role are you auditioning for today?” The woman asked again, holding eye contact with the blonde in a way that made his skin crawl.

“A vocalist.” Jimmy responds, before quickly adding. “I don’t mind being a solo artist or in a group, I’m not too picky.”

That managed to get a soft laugh from the drummer of the Rejects, and Jimmy couldn’t help the sliver of pride he felt in his chest at the sound.

With a nod and a few more words draughted down on the woman's paper, she spoke up once more. “Whenever you're ready Mr: Solidarity, good luck.”

The floor fell out from under Jimmy’s feet.

Suddenly his flash cards reading out the lyrics to the choir songs seemed to be written in a different language; completely incomprehensible to the blonde.

Who was he kidding, he shouldn't be doing this. He should’ve asked Pearl to recommend him at the cafe she works at, or even find some kind of shitty fast food job like every other almost-secondary-school-drop-out.

Looking up from his notes, the only person paying him any mind was the drummer. Maybe Jimmy was trying to find some kind of comfort in the intense situation, but he felt as though the man was rooting for him.

The blonde couldn’t explain how, but as he made eye contact with the drummer, relief washed over him.

His cards still looked like gibberish, so Jimmy set them to the side and took a deep breath, following his gut.

Apparently, his gut felt reminiscent of his old band, The Dog Ranchers.

As he began to sing one of their most popular songs, he couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face.

The band was never meant to be anything long term or serious; him and his friend, Tango and Martin, just wanted to fuck around and perform on stage. Jimmy was in choir and the other two vaguely learned how to play bass and drums at some point, so the band was formed!

The band only lasted a few months, performing at a few local venues and gaining a few fans before falling apart. They disbanded for many reasons, Jimmy ignoring the number one rule of not dating your bandmates certainly was a big one though.

As he sang the song he and his friends wrote together though; he couldn’t help as all the emotions of those sleepless-nights, adrenaline filled performances, and intense screaming matches reflected in his voice.

His performance for the small crowd was strong, emotional, and real.

The blonde didn’t even notice the smile that formed on the drummer's face as he set down his pen, making eye contact with the woman sitting in the center of the table.

When Jimmy wrapped up his performance, actively fighting back tears as he sang the last lyric, he was met with the same silence as before.

No round of applause, no cheers, no shouts.

He was fucked.

The blonde’s face dropped as the room remained completely still, the watchful eyes on him poking holes into his skin.

A clearing of someone's throat broke the silence, forcing Jimmy’s attention towards the direction of the sound.

“Do you usually dress like that?” The drummer asks out, and the others behind the table tried to hold back their laughs.

Jimmy flushed before responding.

“Well no, I just wanted to dress… for the… job.”

“Good cause that style wouldn’t fit in well.” The drummer continues. “You said you didn’t mind joining a pre-existing band, right?”

“Yes, I’m good with anything.”

“Well I’m going to be honest with you.” The drummer starts, and Jimmy mentally prepares himself for the rejection. “After your graduation, I would love to try out working alongside you and my bandmates.”

“Your bandmates?” Jimmy asked, making the man clarify something he already knew.

“Skizz and Big B, the guitarist and bassist of the Rejects.” Joel clarifies, a smile playing on his face. “Would you be interested in giving us a chance?”

Jimmy couldn’t believe what he was hearing right now. THE Rejects, local legends in the scene, wanted to give him a chance to work with them.

He could feel the blood leave his face as he held out a shaky hand for the man.

“I feel like I should be asking you that.” The vocalist tries to hide the shake in his voice as he speaks. “I would, you won’t regret it.”

“Good, I don’t need just another regret.”

Thinking back on that day always gave Jimmy goosebumps, noticing more and more small details the more he replays the memory.

Who he learned to be Joel would quickly become his closest friend, properly introducing him to the other members of the band. It was rocky at first, trying to balance the new dynamic between the group. However, after a week or so, everyone in the band was practically bound by the hip.

Those three men would become his whole world; completely changing his life over the past few months.

As if on cue, Jimmy felt a hand on his shoulder.

Turning around he was greeted by Joel, Skizz, and Big B in their swim wear; all staring down at him in the pool.

“Good morning.” Jimmy mumbles to his bandmates, trying to chase away his sentimental thoughts before they form tears in his eyes.

“Morning mate.” Joel says, voice course from screaming about god knows what last night. “Gotcha something.”

The drummer sat down in the shallow end with Jimmy, holding out a thing of pancakes from a restaurant nearby. Propping himself on the edge of the water, Jimmy began to eat the much-needed breakfast.

Skizz and Big B jumped in the pool as well, however they were actually putting it to a proper use rather than lounging in it like the other two. Watching as the two bandmates swam laps while bickering to each other made the vocalist's heart swell in adoration.

“What’s on your mind?” Joel asks out, being read as both hypothetical and genuine.

Jimmy turns towards the man, a smile evident in his voice as he responds.

“I was just thinking back to my audition; then later when I met you lot.”

A silence hung in the cold air of the morning as Joel processed the words. With a hum, he leans into the water and lets out a laugh.

“So you’re the retrospective drunk of the group then?”

“Oi knock it off.” Jimmy berates, splashing the other man with some water. “I’d take retrospective over whatever the hell happens to you and Skizz.”

“Oh come off it, I’m not as bad as Skizz.” Joel defends.

“You kissed a man on the neck, Joel.”

“IT WAS ONE TIME, I SWEAR-” The drummer's frustration was cut off by the sound of Jimmy’s laughter, Joel unable to stay mad with the sound in his ears.

Once the laughter died down, there was a moment of peaceful silence where the two men watched their friends mess around with each other.

“Man that was ages ago.” Joel breaks the silence. “You're audition.”

“It was only five-ish months ago.” Jimmy reminds, getting a shocked look from Joel.

“Time flies when you’re having fun, I suppose.” Was the only response Jimmy got before Joel changed the topic. “How you feeling about going back on the road tomorrow?”

The vocalist took a minute to think before responding. As mentioned many times before; Jimmy couldn’t be more grateful for the break, but there was also a part of him that missed being lulled to sleep by the uneven road underneath him. Or the strange interactions that could only happen at night in a tour bus, such as Joel falling off his bunk and just staying on the floor.

Jimmy missed being on the road; yearning for all the stress, flaws, and discomforts that came with living in such conditions.

He never thought he’d get to that point.

“Honestly so excited bro.” Jimmy states. “I miss everything about being on tour, even the non-stop stress believe it or not.”

That got a laugh out of Joel, knowing better than anyone the stress a tour could put people under.

“Glad to hear.” The drummer says. “Tonight we’re gonna have an absolute rager if you were unaware.”

“Haven’t we been doing that every night?” Jimmy teases.

“Yes and no; but tonight everybody is gonna be there!” Joel exclaims while splashing around in the water. “We’re gonna hit up some new bars, and pass the fuck out on the bus tomorrow morning if I can help it.”

Casting the humor aside, Jimmy focused on one part of Joel’s statement.

Everybody is going to be there.

Everybody.

“Well, who am I to skip out on a party that everyone else will be attending?” Jimmy asks, playing coy as he finishes up his food, earning a laugh from Joel.

The blonde couldn’t wait for tonight.

.ılılıll ↺ |◁ ll ▷| ♡ llılılı.

Everybody, in fact, was not there.

Don’t misunderstand Jimmy, the bar was absolutely packed. Along with the bands being there, the entire road crew and a couple of local bands were scattered around the place. It was hard to walk around the bar without running into someone and being forced into drunk induced small-talk.

However, after analyzing the large crowd filled with a variety of different bright colors and characters, Jimmy noticed a distinct lack of cyan.

There was pink, in the form of Lizzie chatting with the other Rejects at the bar while her boyfriend was making a fool of himself.

There was orange in the form of Gem’s hair being reflected in the different club lights strewn about the place.

There was yellow in the form of Impulse’s classic T-Shirt that Jimmy believes he has seen more times than not.

No cyan though.

There was never cyan. Never on nights like this.

Maybe Joel was right to call Jimmy the retrospective drunk of the group. He’s a few shots in, still nursing the hang over from this morning, and he could not get Scott out of his head.

Every single interaction they’ve ever had was flashing through Jimmy’s mind in the moment, playing on repeat as he took a sip of his drink.

It tasted overwhelmingly of blue raspberry, the color of the drink matching the flavor; but it wasn’t cyan. It was never cyan.

Jimmy wanted to join his friends in celebrating the kick off of the second leg of the tour more than anything, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it without the other vocalist there.

So he took another round of shots.

Then played a round of darts with Gem and Impulse.

Proceeded to take another round of shots.

Walked around the bar and tried to introduce himself to new people.

Took another round of shots.

Tried to stop the room from spinning around.

Yet another round of shots.

When Jimmy was able to snap himself out of his thoughts, he was in a completely new bar. The new environment was leaning into a more western saloon aesthetic rather than a stereotypical club, and the blonde watched as Skizz tried to ride an electric bull, only making it a solid eight seconds before flying to the ground.

On the other side of the same coin, Big B managed to stay a full two minutes on the bull, earning the band a free round of drinks. It was a strange arrangement, but Jimmy wasn’t complaining if it got him free alcohol.

He’s been getting drunk this entire week, the blonde would be a fool to try and deny that, however those previous nights he had something that he didn’t have right now. Restraint.

The only time Jimmy has ever blacked out was at some random party Martin threw back in the day. He woke up laying down on the stairs while his friend was cleaning up and watching The Greatest Show Man in the living room, having no recollection of the previous night.

It wasn’t fun to black out, but Jimmy couldn't care less in the moment.

In a few hours he’ll forget how helplessly he missed the other vocalist, passed out on the bus, back on the road. In a few hours everything will be back to normal.

With that false comfort in his mind, Jimmy downed his drink and ordered another round for the Rejects. The vocalist vaguely remembers Lizzie walking up to him with Joel in her arms, telling him they were gonna head out early.

Joel seemed properly out of it; limp in Lizzie’s arms as she forced him to drink water out of a straw. His usual chatty, sappy drunk self was nowhere to be seen, drowning in the abyss that was intoxication.

Jimmy didn’t try to bother the two longer than needed. Just asking if Joel was okay and wishing the two well.

The next time the vocalist came too, Skizz and Gem were shaking him by the shoulders, loud music blasting in the background. Once again Jimmy found himself in a new environment.

This time they were outside in front of a stage, string lights decorated the wooden beams around them as a local band Jimmy previously met played for the crowd.

The cool air was a welcomed reprieve from the humid environments of the other bars, however it quickly got tainted when Jimmy caught a whiff of someone smoking a blunt in the corner.

The smell was intoxicating; and with as drunk as the vocalist is, he shouldn't be getting second hand high. However, as the crowd moshed in front of him and he hopelessly looked around the venue, Jimmy couldn’t find it in himself to care.

Next time he came too, he was leaning on Skizz for dear life on the motel patio. It was just the two of them walking side-by-side, which felt so wrong compared to the crowd Jimmy was just in.

“Where-” Jimmy starts, voice coarse from doing god knows what all night. “Where are the others?”

“Dude you are out of it!” Skizz exclaims while holding the other steady. “Your voice is all slurred and everything! "

Skizz was trying to tease Jimmy, and the blonde knew that. However, he couldn’t help but laugh at Skizz’s attempt at a jab.

“I am!” Jimmy announces through his laugh, cracking himself up.

“To answer your question we're basically the last to head back.” Skizz continues, attempting to have Jimmy lean off of him. “Gem and Big B headed back after the show, but we stayed out for another hour.”

“Oh.” Was all Jimmy could reply.

Maybe a week-long celebration wasn’t the best idea, considering everyone tapped out earlier than normal.

Or was it earlier? Jimmy didn’t have his phone on him, nor a watch because who wears watches nowadays, so he had no clue what time it was.

The moon was up, being perfectly in view from the patio he and Skizz were walking down, reflecting beautifully in the light of the pool. The pool was still a vibrant blue, much like the first night they entered the motel; it’s not cyan though. It was never cyan.

“Alright mister.” Skizz says while removing himself from underneath the vocalist's arm, Jimmy reaching for the wall to catch his balance. “I think it’s bedtime. Can I trust you to walk one door down to get back to yours?”

Jimmy felt himself nod, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. Was he responding to Skizz? Was he trying to ensure that he still could move his head? Was he just nodding for the sake of it? The world may never know.

Regardless, Skizz put something sharp in the blonde's hand. Letting out a whine, Jimmy looked down to see his room key in his palm... when did that leave his pocket?

“Alright, it’s just a few steps forward, you got this big guy!” With a pat on the vocalist's shoulder, the guitarist escaped into his room. If Jimmy squinted, he could make out Big B’s figure asleep on a bed inside.

Just like that, Jimmy was alone.

It wouldn’t be for the first time that day, but he was definitely lost.

The vocalist tried to follow Skizz’s instructions, taking a ridiculous amount of time to walk a few steps to his and Joel’s room. When he made it to the door, he felt as though he ran a mile; absolutely winded and running on pure adrenaline.

Shakily raising his key to the lock, Jimmy was about to open the door. However, he heard a woman’s voice and froze.

Oh that’s right, Lizzie took Joel home.

Joel wasn’t feeling well.

Joel was drunk out of his mind.

Jimmy didn’t want to disturb Joel when he was in such a state.

Jimmy needed to find somewhere else to crash.

Looking around at the various different doors around him, the blonde felt immensely overwhelmed. Doors lined the walls for what felt like miles, and he could not recall who was staying where, or why he should even care for that matter.

Sitting down on the curb of the patio, Jimmy forced himself to take some deep breaths.

Okay so there was four rooms, right?

Big B and Skizz.

Joel and him.

Scott and Impulse.

Then Gem, right?

So Big B and Skizz were off the table because Skizz just walked him and it would be VERY embarrassing if he failed at the simple task of getting to his hotel room, right?

Joel is out of the question, Jimmy didn’t want to bother the drummer, right?

Scott and Impulse is complicated. The other vocalist was probably working on his course work, and Jimmy would rather die than bother Scott. Plus there were only two beds, which means Jimmy would have to share with one of the men, and he can’t comprehend the idea of potentially sharing a bed with the subject of his fixation. Right?

Then there’s Gem. The blonde has gotten closer with her over the past couple of days, and she had a bit more floor space due to having a solo. She must’ve gotten back somewhat recently, according to what Skizz said, so she seemed like the obvious choice… right?

Okay, game plan time. Jimmy was going to knock on Gem’s door and beg her to let him sleep on the floor; if she rejects him, he will sleep on the cement. A perfect plan!

Ignoring the fact that the tour bus was very much unlocked and had the blonde’s bunk waiting for him, Jimmy confidently stood up and walked over to Gem’s room.

The first knock on the door seemed quiet to Jimmy’s drunk mind, so he knocked again. No one answered the door after a few seconds though, so Jimmy knocked again. Then again. Then again……. Then again.

After what felt like hours (it was thirty seconds) of knocking, the door finally swung open. The sight that greeted the blonde caused Jimmy’s breath to catch in his throat.

Cyan.

“Oh it’s you.” Scott says, fully opening the door once he realised it wasn’t a drunk stranger trying to break into his room, but rather a drunk tourmate trying to break in.

“You’re not Gem.” Jimmy squeaked out, years of vocal training failing him in the moment.

“Were you expecting Gem?” Scott asked, rubbing his eye into his palm as he stared into the vocalist's soul.

“I– what– it’s her room isn’t it?” Jimmy studders out, fully losing control of his nerves at the mere sight of the other man.

“Nah, we switched a few days ago.   ” Scott explains while shooting an analytical glare towards the other man. “It made more sense to have my own space since I’m working on my final. Plus Gem was strange about me and Impulse sharing a room for some reason.”

It wasn’t just some reason; it was because Gem was attempting to keep Impulse, and his bad habit of being a terrible liar, away from Scott at all costs. However, Jimmy couldn’t just say that, so he laughed.

He laughed because he was many, many drinks into the night. He laughed because the very man he wanted to see all night was finally with him. He laughed because god those man’s incomparably beautiful eyes were looking at him.

“Did you need Gem for something?” Scott asks out, clearly trying to hold back a laugh of his own at the blonde’s state.

“Yessss… I can’t remember why… but yes!” Jimmy says, with stars in his eyes.

That’s when Scott lost his composure and laughed in the blonde’s face.

“Okay Jimmy, how 'bout I walk you back to your room?” The other vocalist offers, and Jimmy goes pale.

“No! I can’t!” Jimmy shouts, catching both Scott and himself off-guard. “It’s Joel, he’s not well.”

Scott stood still in the doorway as he processed the information.

“Sorry, I brought up Joel.” Jimmy says, mentally slapping himself. “I know you hate him.”

The other vocalist still stood frozen in the doorway, eyes going wide as Jimmy continued to ramble.

“I-” Scott started, before stopping himself and sighing. “I don’t hate Joel.”

“You could’ve fooled me!” Jimmy shouts, causing Scott to finally unfreeze and yank him into the room.

“There’s no need to shout at three in the morning.” Scott hushes as he closed the door behind them, all the while Jimmy takes in the new environment.

It was slightly more spacious than his and Joel's room, one bed in the center of the space being surrounded by several cords which was no doubt Scott’s doing. Much like how the blonde’s room was infested with green, this one was infested with orange.

Varying shades of the color overwhelmed Jimmy, however it was much more digestible than the green he’s been living in for the past couple days.

It felt warm.

“Does Joel need help?” Scott asks, dragging Jimmy out of his head.

“No, he’s got…” The blonde snapped his fingers a few times in an attempt to try and jog his memory. “Lizzie! Lizzie’s with him.”

“That’s good.”

There was silence as the two vocalists stood awkwardly in the entry way of the room. Neither of them expected this from tonight, and Jimmy was not in the right head space to act close to anything resembling normal around Scott right now.

Why did he knock on the door? What was his end goal here? He completely forgot the moment Scott looked into his eyes.

“Hear, Gem can wait until morning.” Scott settles on saying, walking past Jimmy further into the room. “Do you have most of your stuff packed for tomorrow? "

Tomorrow, what’s happening tomorrow?

“Yes.” Jimmy says with as much confidence as he could muster, which wasn’t a lot, but he was trying his best.

“That’s good.” Scott confirms, digging around in the mini-fridge at the side of his room, pulling out a water bottle. “I don't think you’ll want to pack things up tomorrow morning.”

“Why not?” Jimmy asks, unable to hide the pout on his face in his drunken state.

“How many drinks have you had tonight?” Scott asked, forcing the water bottle in Jimmy’s hands.

Even if the blonde wanted to, he couldn't answer that question. Thankfully, it seemed Scott was being rhetorical.

“You’re gonna have a hell of a hang over tomorrow.” Scott says while guiding Jimmy towards the left side of the bed.

The blonde sat down on the mattress and immediately stood up, Scott jumping in surprise at the sudden movement.

“I- no! I don’t–” Jimmy starts babbling, trying to explain his thoughts. “I don’t want to, I can’t do… I’ll take the floor!”

“What?” Scott says, his tone perfectly reflecting the utter confusion he found himself in.

“I’ll sleep on the floor!” Jimmy announces. Scott just rolled his eyes and shoved Jimmy lightly on the chest, and that’s all it took for the blonde to fall back onto the bed.

“You’re not sleeping on the floor.” Scott denied as he walked to the other side of the bed and sat on the corner of it. “You’re already gonna feel terrible tomorrow, you don’t also need a crick in your neck. Plus, I’m probably pulling an all nighter.”

After Scott was done talking, Jimmy finally stopped squirming around trying to escape the comfort of the mattress. Looking towards Scott on the edge of the bed; the other vocalist appeared absolutely exhausted.

The bags under his beautiful eyes were very obvious, contrasting terribly with his pale skin. Scott was just wearing a simple totoro hoodie with regular shorts underneath, and this is the first time Jimmy has ever seen the man in a simple outfit, outside of pajamas.

“You can’t do that.” Jimmy states as he began squirming again, this time towards Scott.

“And why no- AhHH!” Scott shouts as Jimmy wraps his arms around the other’s waist and starts pulling him. “What on earth are you doing?!”

“Taking you to bed.” Jimmy states to the best of his ability, focusing all his attention to pulling Scott away from his work.

At the end of the day, Jimmy was drunk and incredibly weak. It didn’t take much for Scott to escape his grasp.

When the man escaped, the blonde made eye contact with him. Scott’s face was no longer as pale as before, a pink hue creeping onto it.

“I don’t need you to–” Scott considered his words carefully before continuing. “Take me to bed… I have work I need to do.”

“Animation work?” Jimmy asked the obvious, getting a nod from Scott as he straightened out his hoodie.

“Yeah.” Scott responds, moving back towards the corner of the bed to work on his laptop stationed on a make-shift desk.

Jimmy, rather than forcing Scott away from his work, was now focused on seeing as much of the screen as possible. He was a sucker for any of Scott’s art, what can he say?

The screen displayed several frames of animation, all appearing the same until Scott played them in a sequence, showcasing his handy work. The scene displayed an elf analyzing some broken ice and running outside to be met with a demon, the sequence shows the elf’s shocked face before abruptly ending.

“That’s all I got so far.” Scott explains, playing the short video again with a studious glare. “A full week of work for nine seconds.”

“Where’s the color?” Jimmy asked, hyperfixating on the screen in front of him as the animation played on loop.

“Not added yet. Planning on adding color when I’m shading.” That got a hum from Jimmy, not understanding a single thing the other man said.

“Here, I can pull up the character sheets so you can properly see what the characters look like.”

With a few clicks, three sheets popped up on the computer screen. One of them displayed an elven prince, holding an uncanny resemblance to the man sitting next to Jimmy; the blonde was able to recognize that cyan hair anywhere.

The other sheet was split in half; the top half displaying a demon with a striking red smile and the bottom half displaying another elf, his hair matching the smile of the demon.

Then the third sheet had a bunch of random drawings and frustrated ramblings typed onto it, no character in sight.

“That’s you.” Jimmy states, pointing a finger towards the sheet displaying the cyan haired elf. He nearly lost his balance at the action, but luckily he was able to lean on Scott’s shoulder for support.

Getting a laugh from Scott, his shoulder shaking at the action, the other vocalist replied; “He does kinda look like me, doesn’t he?”

“You should give him angel wings.”

“Pardon?”

“You should give him angel wings.” Jimmy clarifies, confused why Scott made him repeat himself. “You’ve always reminded me of an angel.”

The room went silent. Jimmy could feel the shoulder he was leaning on tense up after his words, Scott’s face turning to look down at the blonde.

“Is that so?” Was the only thing the other asked. The blonde just nodded, turning to look up at Scott; brown eyes meeting the pure artistry of his gray and blue irises.

“Maybe I’ll give him some then.” Was all Scott said as he turned back to the screen, a flush taking over his face. “Although, I myself, am no angel.”

“No you are.” Jimmy confirms, reassuring Scott of the heavenly status he obviously had.

“I think you’ll find that many, many people would disagree with you on that one.”

Jimmy couldn’t imagine a world where anyone could see Scott as anything other than an angel reincarnated. Well everyone except…

“So you don’t hate Joel?” Jimmy asks, throwing a curve ball in what once was a lovely conversation.

If the blonde believed Scott’s shoulder was tense before, it was now rock solid as the entire vocalist’s body froze up. In a sober state, Jimmy made a point to avoid bringing up Joel and Scott to each other, keeping his distance from whatever happened in their past. However, the blonde didn’t hold the same caution while under the influence… clearly.

“No I don’t.” Scott states, still frozen in place.

“Why?”

“If you had to guess, how far away do you think you are from blacking out?” Scott asks, and Jimmy gets hit with whiplash at the topic change.

“Ummmm…” The blonde drowns, very unsure of the answer to such a difficult question. “One more shot.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you if you take one more shot.” The humor was clear in Scott’s tone, or rather, clear to anyone of sober mind. Jimmy was anything but of sober mind right now.

Almost immediately the blonde shot away from Scott’s shoulder and stood from the bed, nearly tripping over himself and the many chords several times. Within an instant, Scott was on his feet to help Jimmy regain his balance, trying to understand the sudden change in demeanor.

It wasn’t till Jimmy opened the mini-fridge filled with all the complimentary drinks the hotel provides the room that Scott realized why the blonde was so adamant to stand up.

“No!” Scott shouts, trying to tug Jimmy’s arm out of the fridge. “I swear if you die of alcohol poisoning in my room–”

The blonde got his hands on some kind of beer and raised the can to his lips, downing a solid half of it before Scott snatched it from him. In the process of preventing a hospital visit, some of the beer managed to pour down Jimmy’s face and stick to his skin.

“Oh, look what you’ve done now.” Scott mutters, mostly to himself, as he tosses the half-finished can across the room.

“I can’t. Eyes closed.” Jimmy responds, cringing at his sticky skin.

Scott just ignored the blonde’s response, pulling the man back onto the bed and forcing him to stay put by wrapping him in the bed sheets.

Jimmy was once again doing everything he could to escape the confines of the bed, but he stilled when he felt something cold against his face. It was unpleasant at first, but felt more comfortable as the wet cloth removed the discomfort caused by the beer.

“You’re ridiculous sometimes, you know that?” Scott asks out, not expecting a response from Jimmy. Unfortunately he got one.

“Well you’re handsome all the time, you know that? " Jimmy replies, finally being able to open his eyes after the beer spill. Scott’s face was close to the blonde's as the other vocalist cleaned him up, a pink hue lining his cheeks.

“I- that doesn’t have to do with anything.” Was all Scott said, and Jimmy wanted to argue back.

Argue that Scott had everything to do with anything. That the world would be completely different if the blonde didn’t see the other man in the small things around him. Before his thoughts formed into words however, Scott let out a sigh and let go of Jimmy.

Leaning a bit away, Scott grabbed his tablet and pulled up the character sheets; allowing himself to settle next to Jimmy on the bed. Of course, ever the opportunist, Jimmy took this as his chance to once again lean on the man's shoulder.

Scott pulled up the character sheet of the elven prince, zooming in on one of the drawings and sketching a few stray lines behind it. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that Jimmy realised the other vocalist was adding angel wings.

The other vocalist listened to him, and god did that make Jimmy’s heart flutter in his chest.

However, the wings reminded him back to the topic at hand. Scott was going to tell him why he, allegedly, didn’t hate Joel.

After a few more seconds of cherishing the quiet moment, Jimmy spoke up again.

“So you don’t hate Joel?”

The pen paused in its artistic motions as Scott took a deep breath.

“Joel and I have a very complicated relationship.” The other vocalist states simply while continuing to add to the drawing in front of him; Jimmy couldn’t help the frown on his face.

“You’re in a relationship?”

“Yeah?” Scott responds in confusion, taking a few seconds to realize what Jimmy was actually asking. “NO. Actually no, we’ve never dated or anything like that it’s just–”

Jimmy took the chance to glance away from the tablet and look up to Scott’s face. If a facial expression can perfectly encapsulate grief, Scott is the poster-child of that look.

“Him and I grew up together.” Scott confesses, bringing the digital pen to his lips as he bites on the end. “We went to the same schools, basically knew each other our whole lives. Then, halfway through secondary school, Joel began learning drums.”

A smile curled on Scott's lips as he reminisced on the distant memory of his old friend struggling to do something that now seemed to be second nature.

“Jealous, I decided to save up and buy a bass and teach myself the instrument. We bonded a lot as we honed our skills, and at the beginning of our last year in secondary school, we formed a band together.”

That’s when Jimmy’s jaw officially dropped; Scott trying, and failing, to hide his laugh at the vocalist’s reaction.

“What–” Jimmy’s muddled brain couldn’t comprehend what he heard, just replaying the same sentence in his mind over and over again. “What was the band?”

Scott looked down at Jimmy’s confused face, reaching down to run a hand through the blonde's messed up hair before answering his question.

“Our band’s name was Frenemies.” Scott replied with a laugh, no doubt laughing at how ironic that name is in hindsight. “We started off at random local venues, even the cursed one you hate, slowly gaining traction throughout the school year.”

The smile that played on Scott’s face slowly dropped as he continued explaining.

“Closer to graduation, I applied and got accepted into my dream university; getting just enough scholarships to be able to afford it.                                                                                 Meanwhile Joel put his everything into Frenemies; promoting and attending every local radio show he could. That’s when Life Records reached out to him.”

Scott paused the story for a moment as he continued playing with the blonde's hair, not that Jimmy was complaining at all. After a while, he turned to look up at Scott again.

The other man seemed to be sporting the same haunted expression that Jimmy has become far too familiar with over the course of this tour.

“Joel signed to the label without telling me.” Scott states, and Jimmy couldn’t help matching the other vocalist's expression.

Joel forged Scott’s signature when joining the label.

“He told me after the fact, and I didn’t know what to do.” Scott confesses, turning his gaze to the corner of the room rather than Jimmy’s concerned eyes. “I didn’t want to disappoint Joel, nor did I want to completely give up on my musical journey; so I decided to take a gap year.”

After another deep breath, Scott continued.

“That was the worst mistake I’ve ever made. I absolutely hated being forced into pursuing what I considered a hobby, professionally. That led me to begin to build resentment for Joel as time went on.”

The hand that stilled in Jimmy’s hair started moving again, and the blonde couldn’t help but close his eyes as the object of his hyperfixation scratched his scalp.

“Then we went on tour.” Scott continues. “I watched as all of my previous classmates live the life I yearned for; going to uni, meeting new people, and studying their interests. All the while I was stuck on a bus with a bandmate I was growing to hate and the band we were opening for.”

In Jimmy’s terribly impaired state, he wrapped an arm around Scott’s waist as some form of comfort when he noticed tears gathering in the other man’s eyes.

“On a particularly bad day, I wasn’t feeling my best.” Scott continued. “I was feeling ill and I fainted during the dress rehearsal. I woke up to a crowd of random people gathered around me, and the first thing I processed was Joel asking if I could still perform. When I heard that, I fucking lost it at him.”

The image of Scott screaming seemed so foreign to Jimmy; never seeing the other vocalist even come close to losing his composure. The blonde felt a shiver run up his spine.

“Basically in front of everyone, I screamed about how much I hated him, touring, and Frenemies.” The other vocalist continued, something resembling regret visible in his eyes. 

“We ended up canceling the show that night and, once the tour was over, Joel cancelled our contract. He begged Life Records to keep him while I fully left and tried going to university.”

Jimmy’s eyes were wide as his brain slowly began to process all the information Scott was sharing. Is this why Joel was so intense when Jimmy himself fell sick? Was this what was Joel’s root cause of his biggest insecurity? Do Scott’s eyes more so resemble something on earth, or rather in space?

“I wasn’t able to recover the scholarships I once had; go figure, canceling out of nowhere and taking a gap year wasn’t the best idea.” Scott attempts a short laugh at the joke before continuing. “So, my dream school was out of the question. I had to settle for what I considered a back-up and started my courses in the next semester.”

The haunted expression slowly melted away from Scott’s face, returning to a neutral look that Jimmy has been well acquainted with.

“I worked my ass off at part time jobs, then went home and did course work, throwing myself together and trying to recover from what Joel did. Just when I got back on my feet, I met Gem and Impulse.”

The smile on Scott’s lips at the mention of his bandmates was contagious, and Jimmy couldn’t help but crack a grin as the other vocalist continued talking.

“We were all forced to take an art history course together and immediately hit it off and the rest is history; we played school events, local bars, and random venues all while our courses came first. It made me love performing again.”

Scott fully set down his pen, long giving up on the idea of being productive during his explanation.

“Life Records caught wind of this, offering us an opening position on tour for a band that formed after I left the label. I checked out the band only to be met with Joel’s face, and I was going to refuse the offer, but I need the money for tuition and obviously Gem and Impulse were looking forward to their first tour. ”

As the story wrapped up, Jimmy squeezed the other man tighter. The blonde couldn’t tell you why he did so, he just felt like he needed to.

“And now we’re here.”

“That’s- I– how???” Was all Jimmy could respond, getting a laugh out of Scott.

The hand in Jimmy’s hair left for a minute, and he honest to god whined at the loss, only making Scott laugh harder. The hand returned with a water bottle that was forced into Jimmy’s hands once again.

“I told you.” Scott said as he brought his hand back up to Jimmy’s hair. “I don’t hate Joel. We were both young and so incredibly stupid;  sure he signed with the label without my knowledge, but I also never let him find out I didn’t want that till it was far too late. Then when he did find out, he cancelled the contract immediately.”

“Yeah I guess.” Was all Jimmy could reply, still struggling to wrap his head around the situation. “I just don’t understand.”

“You’ll probably forget this all by morning, don’t be too pressed about it.” Scott jokes as he props up the tablet on his thighs, opening the empty character sheet.

“I don’t think I could forget that, I–” As he talked, Scott made eye contact with him and it all clicked for Jimmy.

“The stars.”

“Pardon?” Scott replies, holding back a smile much like he had earlier in the night.

Of course, how could Jimmy miss it up until this point? How could he be so foolishly ignorant to something so obvious?

Scott’s eyes reminded him of the stars.

Within the iris that much resembled the universe; there were thousands, if not millions of different hues of gray and blue, mixing in an elaborate cacophony to create the unknown. Sharing the same beauty of a star; serene from a distance, but maddeningly intense up close.

“Your eyes.” Jimmy says through his smile, grinning ear-to-ear at the revelation. “They remind me of the stars.”

Jimmy took a moment to look up towards Scott, and god was he glad he did. Those cosmic eyes were wide as the other man blinked rapidly, trying to recover from such a statement.

“Was that a pressing matter for you?” Scott asks, trying to play it off as a joke, but his voice was hardly above a whisper as he spoke.

“Been trying to find a comparison since I met you on the bus for the first time.”

It was Scott who broke eye contact first, Jimmy being ripped away from the universe as the other vocalist turned his head; face heating up.

“I think you’re really wasted.” Was all Scott replied.

Jimmy didn’t know why Scott was stating the obvious, but he didn’t mind if that meant he could hear the other’s voice.

“Nuh uh.” Jimmy responded as fatigue hit his eyelids, shutting his eyes for just a moment of rest. However, once his eyes were closed, Jimmy found it near to impossible to open them back up again.

Over the past week, the idea of sleep never seemed appealing to Jimmy. Why go to sleep when he could stay out with his friends, grab another round of drinks, and just exist. However, with his arm wrapped around Scott’s waist and the other vocalist playing with his hair, the void had never looked so appealing.

“Go to sleep.” Scott whispered in Jimmy’s direction, and never one to deny Scott anything, the blonde allowed himself to be swallowed by the void.

Thank god for that.

If Jimmy caught Scott off guard with another compliment he might've exploded. The vocalist's face was a burning red, in great contrast to the eyes Jimmy found himself hyperfixated on.

Shaking his head, Scott forced his attention back to the tablet in his lap, being greeted with the empty sheet of the character giving him trouble.

The character that his elven prince saw as the pure definition of a happy, peaceful future.

The character that would work in perfect harmony with the elven prince as they co-existed side by side.

The character that would be the elven prince’s lover.

Looking down at Jimmy once more, Scott got to drawing.

 

‿︵‿︵୨ *.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ୧‿︵‿︵

Notes:

Hey y'all... long time no see...

I hope you enjoyed chapter five! Sorry for posting it a day late, but in my defense, the ao3 curse came for my ass soooooo

As mentioned at the beginning, this has been my favorite chapter to write so far! Being able to finally have pay-off for so many long-running jokes and themes is absolutely amazing and I hope y'all enjoyed this as much as I have.

The next chapter WILL be posted next friday, or so help me... I promise y'all this will not become a common occurrence. Just with the things happening in my life and the attention this chapter needed, it just took me a little bit longer.

With all that being said, I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see y'all next friday!