#slayed the boots house down houston I am deceased | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oliverreedmasterass · 2 years

Text

Words: 4k

Synopsis: My interpretation of what happened backstage before the guys took the stage in Tucson, slaying the house down boots houston I’m deceased

Warnings: language, drinking

__________________________________________

“Shit,” Josh cursed as he sifted through their tote bag of rhinestones, face glue, and eyeshadow palettes. “We have so much left over.”

“We could auction it off for charity,” Danny suggested as he peered over Josh’s shoulder at their stash. “I know for a fact that someone would buy that.”

“Why would they do that?” Jake asked from the greenroom couch with a furrowed brow.

“I don’t think you understand how obsessed some of our fans are,” Danny replied.

“Eesh,” Jake said.

“I can’t let it go to waste,” Josh seemed troubled. “I paid good money for those rhinestones.”

“You didn’t pay for those rhinestones, I did,” Jenn corrected him as she entered the greenroom. “And they were dirt cheap.”

“Oh,” Josh mumbled.

“I do think we should go all in for tonight though,” Jenn suggested. “Just to end the tour with a bang, you know?”

“I’m in,” Danny was quick to agree. Out of the band, he was the most willing to put on stage makeup. In his eyes, it was a fun way for him to stand out from behind his drum kit. Plus, he felt pretty fucking hot when his eyes were darkened with the eye shadow.

Josh gave one more look down at the tote bag and shrugged.

“Why not?” he decided. “I think Jenn’s up for the challenge.”

“You bet I am,” Jenn grinned.

“What are we talking about?” Sam asked as he plodded into the room, a bottle of water and his phone in his hands.

“Going all out with the stage makeup,” Danny caught him up to speed.

“Ah,” Sam replied. “Count me in.”

“You want me to do your makeup too?” Jenn was floored. Sam had never expressed any interest in her doing anything with his face. She had heard him complain to Danny before that he put way too much effort into his skincare routine to have makeup ruin his pores.

“Sure,” Sam said like it was nothing. “I don’t want to feel left out.”

At that, everyone in the room turned to look at Jake. He was scrolling through his phone but looked up when he noticed the silence.

“What?” he asked.

“You can’t be the only one out there without a little makeup,” Josh told him.

“You guys have your fun,” Jake waved them off and snapped his head back down to study his phone. Josh, Danny, and Sam all exchanged disappointed looks but decided not to prod Jake any further. When he had his mind made up about something, it was set in stone.

“We’d better get started,” Jenn broke the silence.

“I’ll go first,” Josh volunteered, because he felt like his rhinestone time was something sacred between him and Jenn.

While Jake continued to direct all of his attention to whatever was on his phone, Danny grabbed his guitar from its case and plugged it into the amp they always requested on their rider. Near him, Sam opened his storage trunk with a grunt and started to mix a drink from his “On-the-Go Tiki Bar”. Danny started to pluck out the opening to “Broken Bells” while Josh settled in a folding chair and waited for Jenn to get her supplies ready.

“What are you thinking for me, Jenn?” he asked her. Jenn studied his face, trying to envision what would look best on him.

“I think we should actually put the rhinestones on hold for tonight.”

“Daring, I like it.”

Danny repositioned himself so he could get a good view of what Jenn was doing while he continued to mess around on his guitar. Jake took a brief second to smirk at him when he started to play a Cream song but, just as quickly, he was looking back down at his phone. Sam, with his mixed drink in hand, tried to get a peek at what Jake was doing by very non-discreetly leaning over the arm of the couch to place his face between the phone and Jake’s eyes. Jake slammed his phone into the break between the couch cushions and glared at Sam.

“Don’t look at my phone,” he scolded his younger brother.

“I just want to know what’s so important,” Sam defended himself.

“None of your business, that’s what,” Jake replied.

“Fine,” Sam huffed. He moved away from the couch slowly and, when his back was turned to Jake, Jake slid his phone back out from the cushions and started to retype his password. He called out in shock when Sam quickly turned on his heel, spilling his drink everywhere, and jumped back to Jake’s side to snatch the phone out of his hand.

“Give it back!” Jake sprung to his feet and started to chase after Sam. Danny, making sure he was out of their way, began picking out the Benny Hill theme on his guitar.

“You guys better not bump into Jenn,” Josh warned his brothers from his folding chair.

“Disconnect from the source!” Sam called over his shoulder while he ran in circles around the green room, Jake on his tail.

“Samuel!” Jake’s tone was stern. Unfortunately he wasn’t their father, so it had little to no effect on Sam. Sam started to prance around and Jake grunted out in frustration that he wasn’t able to catch up to his pest of a brother. When had Sam gotten so fast? Or was it that Jake had just gotten slower? Jake didn’t want to think too hard about that. “Please,” he forced out through grit teeth. Sam stationed himself so Danny was in between him and Jake and shook his head.

“What is it? Were you googling yourself again? Or are you looking into Imagine Dragons tickets?”

Danny started to play “It’s Time” which earned him a hefty smack from Jake.

“Hey, I’m not the one who took your phone,” he frowned at Jake.

“I would have done that to Sam instead if I could reach him,” Jake apologized.

Sam took advantage of Jake’s moment of distraction and slyly entered the rest of his passcode, unlocking his phone. Jake looked past Danny to Sam and groaned when he saw a large grin spread across Sam’s face as he studied Jake’s phone.

“Oh my god,” Sam finally spoke, letting the phone drop down to his side. Jake lurched past Danny and grabbed it back from Sam, who had started to laugh and shake his head.

“What is it?” Danny looked back to ask Sam.

“This idiot,” Sam motioned towards Jake, “this macho man who turned down Jenn’s kind offer was just Googling ‘eyeliner tips.’”

Even though Jenn was in the middle of painting a golden line under Josh’s right eye, he whirled around in his seat to face his twin. Jake’s eyes snapped to the ground and he jammed his phone into his pants pocket.

“I’m gonna get some fresh air,” he excused himself, and hustled out of the room.

“What the fuck was that?” Josh asked after Jake left.

“He did want to get his makeup done,” Danny explained. “He was just embarrassed.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is, though,” Josh said. “I mean, you and I wear it all the time, Sam is going to tonight as well, it’s not weird at all.”

“It’s not really his thing though,” Danny countered.

“It used to be,” Sam pointed out. “When he was in the thick of his pirate obsession, he leapt at every opportunity to put eyeliner on.”

“That’s right, he wore it for a few gigs and photoshoots,” Josh recalled.

“Well, people change,” Jenn gave her two cents. “Maybe he feels disconnected from that part of his life so he’s trying to ease back into it.”

“I guess,” Sam said. “I still don’t understand why he had to be so secretive.”

Jenn leaned away from Josh after she finished drawing the last golden line on his face and admired her work.

“That looks nice,” she congratulated herself. Josh turned to study his reflection in the mirror and, after taking in the new look, beamed back at Jenn.

“Good work, I look like a ray of sunshine.”

“That’s what I was going for.”

Josh rose to his feet with a grunt and pointed towards the door.

“I’m gonna try to find Jake and get him back here.”

Everyone agreed that was a good idea, so Josh disappeared down the hallway out of sight. The room settled in its silence and then Jenn checked her watch and bugged her eyes at the time.

“Danny, do you want to get over here?” Jenn motioned for him. Danny eyed the cable that was connected from the amp to his guitar and seemed to contemplate whether he could bring the guitar to the chair without it unplugging. He gave it a shot and plopped into the chair with satisfaction, testing out a loud chord that rang through the room.

“I’m gonna play while you work, if that’s okay,” Danny told Jenn. “I’ve got some pent up nerves I need to work through before we get out there.”

“Do what you need to do,” Jenn told him. “Just make sure you stay still.”

Sam wandered to find another chair and brought it next to Jenn’s side so he could get a front row view of Danny’s makeup routine.

“Can you make it extra dark tonight?” Danny put in a request.

“You got it, bud,” Jenn nodded.

“Wow,” Sam breathed out as Jenn passed the first layer of black eyeshadow over the top of Danny’s eyelid. “That stuff is pigmented.”

“How do you know about pigments?” Jenn arched an eyebrow while she continued to work.

“I have a sister,” Sam replied simply.

“And a refined taste for quality eyeshadow palettes,” Danny poked fun. Sam faked a frown in Danny’s direction, which he returned with his tongue out.

Sam continued to watch Jenn work her magic on Danny and, with each brush stroke over his eyes and rhinestone glued beneath his waterline, Sam started to feel a building anticipation to have his own turn in the folding chair. He just wished that Jake felt the same way.

***

Josh was glad that it only took him a couple of minutes to find Jake. That was the perk of not only being his twin, but also spending almost every second of the day with him: the guy was pretty predictable. Josh knocked on the stall Jake was hiding in and made sure his voice was soft and soothing.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on?” he asked through the door. He could hear Jake jump in surprise.

“I want you to go back to the greenroom and throw something at Sam for me,” Jake grunted after some thought.

“Come on, Jake, this is silly,” Josh ignored him. “If you want to wear eyeliner, you should have said so. We just want you to be happy is all.”

“I’d be happy if you respected my privacy,” Jake still sounded frustrated.

“Okay, Sam taking your phone wasn’t cool.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“But I’m sure he’ll apologize to you.”

“Josh, can I just have some space?”

Josh knew that it was best to clear the room for Jake, as much as he wanted to try and console him.

“Yeah, of course.”

He made his way back out of the men’s room and shook his head. Jake could be a handful sometimes.

Josh returned back to their room, running through all of the things he could have said to Jake that probably would have been better than what he opted for, and stopped in the doorway. Sam was sitting in the folding chair now, looking up at the ceiling while grasping onto his legs, tears pouring down his cheeks as Jenn passed some gold eyeliner under his eye.

“You’re doing good, Sam,” Danny tried to comfort his friend.

“This feels so weird,” Sam mumbled. “I take it back, maybe I don’t want any makeup.”

“I’m almost done,” Jenn promised.

Sam’s eyes looked to be scanning every inch of the tiled ceiling to keep himself distracted while Jenn traced the line out to the corner of his eye and flicked up.

“I don’t feel the wet thing anymore, are you done?” Sam’s eyes looked back at Jenn and Danny. Danny studied Sam’s face and let out a chuckle.

“That looks pretty good, Sam. You should have done this a long time ago.”

“You think?” Sam gave him a goofy grin back.

Josh joined their side and took in Sam’s new look. It was subtle in comparison to Danny’s dark eyeshadow and ruby rhinestones combination, but it somehow made Sam look even more ethereal than he usually did, walking around like a Jesus lookalike and all.

“We look so celestial,” Josh commented. It was Sam’s turn to take a look in the mirror and, after gazing at himself a little bit too long, he looked back at Josh and nodded.

Danny started to play “Here Comes the Sun”.

“I’m not done yet,” Jenn said over Danny’s impression of George Harrison.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked. Jenn uncapped her tube of mascara and held it out to Sam, who cocked his head to the side. “Um?” he responded.

“It’ll make your eyes really pop,” Jenn explained.

“You never give me mascara,” Josh pouted.

“Just let me have this one thing,” Jenn turned back to quiet Josh, who immediately sealed his mouth shut. Sam wasn’t arguing or running for the hills, so Jenn leaned forward and brushed the wand under his long eyelashes. It would have been a crime if she left those things alone. When she finished, Danny spoke her mind.

“Good call, Jenn,” he said.

“Am I pretty?” Sam said, starting to bat his eyelashes.

“No! Don’t!” Jenn was quick to stop him. “It hasn’t dried yet, you’re gonna ruin everything and then we’ll have to start all over.”

That made Sam stop pretty fast.

“How did it go with Jake?” Danny finally seemed to realize that Josh was back in the room.

“Well, he’s not here, so not great,” Josh replied. “I think he needs more time to cool off.”

***

Once Jake heard Josh shut the men’s room door, he peeked out from the stall. He knew that he was overreacting to everything, but he really didn’t appreciate how much Sam made him look like a fool back in their room. The only reason he had Googled eyeliner tips was because he was curious, that was all. Hearing everyone talk about stage makeup made him feel nostalgic for the days when he owned his own eyeliner that he tucked away in his desk drawer, penciling it quickly under his eyes whenever he felt especially bold. But that was a solid six years ago, and a lot had changed since then. Their fanbase had easily quadrupled in size, and he was worried that people would be especially vocal about how awful he looked if he couldn’t rock the eyeliner like he used to.

But the reception with his haircut had been overwhelmingly positive, and Jake had even started experimenting with different hoops to wear on stage, which people seemed to enjoy. He could feel himself testing the limits of his appearance, trying to reinvent what the modern day rockstar was technically supposed to look like. It was just that he knew, deep down, that he was worried he would look like a knockoff member of Maneskin. That band was too hot for their own good; he didn’t want to come across like a copycat.

Jake made his way to the line of mirrors above the sinks and studied his face. He had shaved the night earlier because his mustache still wasn’t growing in the way he wanted it to, so he looked nearly identical to his 2016 self, shorter hair and all. The longer he looked, the more he could picture himself out on the stage with eyeliner. In his gut, he could feel it starting to become less of a want, and more of a need.

“Fuck,” he mumbled to himself. He was going to have to be sneaky and fast.

It was a good thing that his band members were the least observant people alive. Jake managed to army crawl back into the room, steal Jenn’s makeup bag from literally under her nose, and slither back out into the hallway without a soul noticing him. It definitely helped that they were all crowded around Sam, who was acting as though he was being tortured by Jenn as she put on his rhinestones. In that moment, Jake was grateful that Sam could be a massive drama queen sometimes.

Jake sprung back to his feet and hustled to the bathroom, carrying the bag under his arm to stay discreet around the numerous roadies and stage hands who were rushing around the backstage area. He forced the door shut behind him and scanned around, finding a trash can that he could tuck under the doorknob to insure that no one else came in.

“Hello, old friend,” Jake greeted the eyeliner pencil as he pulled it out from the bag.

It was time to go back to his roots.

Jake was disappointed by just how out of practice he was with the pencil. It had seemed so simple when he was younger, but he had to take into account that he wore it a lot back then. Jake started with the lower lash line of his right eye since that was usually the easiest part, but ticked when he accidentally smeared the black line downwards, making him look more like a raccoon than a rockstar. He fumbled around in the bag and heaved out a sigh of relief when he found Jenn’s makeup wipes. For a second there, he was convinced he was going to have to return to the greenroom with his tail in between his legs and his makeup all smudged to beg for help.

He wiped the slate clean and steadied the side of his hand on his cheekbone to give it a second try.

“You’re a pirate,” he whispered in encouragement. “Be the pirate.”

This time around, muscle memory must have clicked for Jake because he successfully drew the pencil over his waterline without a single tear. In case it was a fluke, Jake quickly moved to the top of his eye and, just as easily, drew a second line right above his lashes.

“Ha!” he couldn’t help but call out in glee as he checked his progress in the mirror. The old Jake was coming back, and it was nice to see him.

Jake was proud of how effortlessly he was able to get his other eye done, and he couldn’t help but flash finger guns at his reflection because he was really feeling himself.

“I don’t need Jenn to do this for me,” Jake told himself. “I’m the makeup expert, not Josh, not Danny, not stupid Sam. Me.”

He knew he was short on time, so he tossed the eyeliner back into Jenn’s bag, packed up the makeup wipes, and carefully removed the garbage can from the doorknob. A part of him wanted to continue sneaking around until he had to go out on stage, but he also knew that it was better to just own up to what he had done.

So he bounded back to the green room.

***

“Do you think I should look for him?” Danny asked around the room. “We need to take the stage soon.”

“He’ll be out there, he’s just going through something right now,” Josh said. When Jake asked for space, Josh always let Jake come to him when he was ready. “He’ll come back when he wants to.”

“I hope so,” Danny looked at the doorway again with worry. Jake had outbursts every so often, but the music always came first, so if they ever got into an argument backstage, he usually let it slide pretty fast. This time around though he was gone for a lot longer than usual, and Danny was starting to believe that Jake had left and caught the first flight back to Nashville to start his solo career.

“I can look for him,” Jenn offered. She was in the middle of cleaning up her work station, but stopped, turning around in a full circle. “Where did my makeup bag go?” she asked.

“I saw it on the table not too long ago,” Josh said.

“That’s what I thought too,” Jenn mumbled. “It’s not there anymore.”

“Did you take it, Sam?” Josh turned to his brother.

“No, I did not take it, Josh,” Sam responded, his hand snapping up to mess around with the rhinestones Jenn had glued near the corner of his eyes.

“Don’t touch those,” Jenn took a brief pause from her search to coach Sam. “The glue isn’t great. It doesn’t take a whole lot to pull those off.”

“Oops,” Sam said, letting his hands flop back to his sides.

“Maybe I put it in the travel case,” Jenn thought aloud, returning back to the missing makeup bag. “It’s just so weird, I’m usually so good about keeping track of everything. It’s almost like someone snuck it out when we weren’t looking.”

“That’s because that’s exactly what happened.”

Jenn, Danny, Sam, and Josh all snapped their heads towards the doorway and gawked at the sight of Jake, who was cockily leaning on the frame, tossing Jenn’s makeup bag from hand to hand, gazing at all of them with his darkened eyes.

“My god, Jake,” Josh was the first to find his words. “You’ve still got it.”

“You bet your ass I’ve still got it,” Jake retorted as he handed the bag back to Jenn. “It was bold of you all to assume that I wouldn’t want in on the fun.”

Jenn finally got a good look at the job Jake had done and waved her hand in front of his face to get his attention. He twisted around to look at her.

“Can I help you clean that up?” she softly asked. “I think it would look good if it was smudged.”

Jake hated admitting it, but after giving himself another quick look in the mirror, he realized that Jenn was right. His lines were a bit crooked in some places, as if he had actually been a pirate trying to apply the black lines on the choppy sea.

“Yeah, okay,” he sighed. He really did want to look his best, even if it meant temporarily coming down from his high horse. He threw himself back into the folding chair and could feel Josh, Danny, and Sam’s eyes all on him as Jenn pressed a pencil brush against his lids and swished it back and forth, packing the dark color towards the corner of his eyes.

“Do you want some rhinestones?” she asked with hope when she was done.

“No,” Jake was quick to shut that idea down. He had a very specific vision of how he wanted to look on the stage, and rhinestones were not a part of that image. “I will switch these out though,” he added in an attempt to not hurt Jenn’s feelings, pointing at his earrings. “Got anything good on hand?”

“I’ve got a pair I’ve been wanting you to try,” Jenn sounded unbothered. She reached back into her bag and retrieved a ziploc bag that contained a pair of impressive-sized, clunky golden hoops. Jake gazed at them in admiration.

“Those look great.”

Jenn helped him fasten them on and then Jake stood back to his feet so he could look around at his bandmates. He had to admit that they all looked really good. Even Sam, as much as he looked out of his element, and as much as Jake despised his guts in that moment.

“I think we’ve never looked better,” he decided.

“It is a good way to finish off this tour from hell,” Josh agreed once he was done taking in Jake’s appearance. The shorter hair, bigger hoops, freshly shaven face, and eyeliner practically made him look like a different person. He looked confident and happy, which was more than enough to satisfy Josh.

“Amen to that,” Danny commented. “Five shows left.”

“Let’s give them a night they’ll never forget,” Sam looked around at his bandmates. “I’m gonna slay for my besties.”

“Please never talk again,” Danny patted Sam on the shoulder as he moved to put his guitar away.

Jenn watched the four boys do their final prep before going out on stage and beamed. She was one fucking brilliant makeup artist.

#greta van fleet #gvf #gvf fic #gvf fanfiction #gvf fanfic #jake kiszka #josh kiszka #danny wagner #sam kiszka #dreams in gold #fanfiction #this idea has been eating me alive all week

91 notes · View notes