Out of Tune - Slipknot

Chapter 1 - Prelude 3.0

~Joey pov~

"Gooood morning mother FUCKERRR!!!"
Ugh.
I glare blearily in the general direction of the noise as my eyes adjust to the dim light and my head pounds like there's construction going on in there. In an attempt to wake up faster, I rub my hands all over my face. They're cold and I'm pretty sure I slept with them over the edge of my bed again, but the temperature shocks me awake.
When I pull my hands away, I see that they're now covered in black and pure white.
'You have GOT to be shitting me,' I think. I throw my stupid covers off of my body and recoil at the feeling of the cold air, but leap out of bed nonetheless. The mirror on my door exposes my disgusting state.
I take a step closer and inspect myself carefully. I was definitely far more drunk last night than I thought I was, because I find myself dressed in Craig's favourite shirt. A faint smile crosses my face as I think about how reluctant he probably was to give it up, and how I'm definitely not giving it back. I see that I'm wearing some long shorts under it. My face is the true terror though. Not only was my makeup smudged from me rubbing it, some of my white foundation made its way into my hair. The rats nest of red and black is beyond help.
I open the door quietly and slip out of my room and into the bathroom next to it. I'm not in the mood for Corey to bully me for my face right now. I reach for the makeup remover and squeeze a bit out of the bottle, rubbing the substance between my palms.
'Heh, kinda looks like cum.' I giggle to myself like a middle schooler, then rub it all over my face. The makeup loosens from my skin and I bend down, running the tap and filling my cupped hands with ice cold water. As I begin to rinse my face I hear footsteps in the hall.
"You're in the way, buddy." Corey speaks from behind me.
I turn off the tap and wipe the water from my eyes. "And you're touching me, fat ugly kid." I glare at him in the mirror and he takes his hands off of me instantly, holding them up in surrender. "Care to hand me a towel?" I ask as water drips down my neck and forearms. He obliges and I dry my face and neck off.
"Forgot to wash your face last night didn't you?" He steps back as I turn around to face him, giving me space.
I nod. "I'm gonna break out like crazy." I look over my shoulder at myself again, leaning on the counter. I look like a hot mess.
In the shower behind Corey I spot my target. Detangler.
I side-step and swipe it off the shelf, returning to my business as my friend watches. I begin to brush out my tangled hair, clenching my jaw as tears form in my eyes from the tugging. This detangler isn't doing shit.
"It helps if you brush from the ends up."
"Shut up Corey." I grit my teeth.
Reluctantly, though, I tried what he suggested and got even more upset when i learned that he was right. When I finished brushing my hair out I looked at myself in the mirror and felt tears pricking at my eyes.
"You look fucking terrible." Corey comments snarkily.
My entire body shakes as I place my palms hesitantly on the counter, squeezing my eyes shut and clenching my jaw. I can feel the blood drain away from my face. He makes eye contact with me and whispers, "don't tell me you feel like you're gonna throw up."
I blink and bite my lip.
Corey groans and grabs my arm, dragging me to the toilet, opening the lid and steadying me on the floor while holding my hair behind my head. The last strands of hair are pulled away just in time as I start vomiting into the toilet. I stay like this until my body is trying to throw up substance that isn't there.
"Jesus fucking CHRIST, kid." Corey studies the situation as I shakily look up at him with involuntary tears streaming down my face. "Oh my god." He looks around the room at anything but me, with his hand still tangled in my hair. "Do you feel any better? Literally any better at all?" He growls.
I hesitate to reply. "My throat really hurts."
"You literally just vomited up your entire stomach. I'm pretty sure you threw up all of the stomach acid in there too, for gods sake. of course your throat fucking hurts!"
I glance back down at the toilet. Gross. My face is a mess of tears, slobber, and vomit now.
"I feel disgusting." I grumble.
Corey sighs. "I'll help you clean yourself up. Since you're incompetent right now..."
Corey mumbles the last part. He wipes down my neck and chin, along with doing me the service of cleaning the tears off of my cheeks and combing out my hair with his fingers since he got it all messed up.
"Now you have to take a shower. If you want I can go pick you some clothes from your room and you can just shower now." He offers. I side eye my room but nod.
"Thank you." I speak sheepishly.
He hums in response. As he leaves he shuts the door behind him. I hop off the counter and start the warm shower water.
My clothes are disgusting now but I still take the liberty of folding them up on the counter before I get in.
When I finish, I pat myself dry and then wrap my towel around my waist to dry my hair with a second one. A knock comes from the door followed by Corey's voice, "I'm gonna leave your clothes in front of the door for whenever you're ready."
Corey and I have been living together since my parents kicked me out at sixteen. We're technically the same age, though he's around eight months older, but he basically lived alone anyways. His parents are always out of town or out of the country for work so it's not like they really knew I was living with him until they came back and he told them, but they've always loved me. His parents are fantastic people.
As I finish up putting clothes on and redoing my makeup, a knock comes from the front door. I flinch towards the handle of the bathroom door but hear Corey call out to me that he'll get it. Instead I assess my outfit. Baggy Korn tshirt, ripped baggy jeans. Basic but it'll do.
In the living room I'm met with Corey talking to some guy. I don't bother paying them any mind but I listen carefully as I pack up my things for school.
"... tonight because I think Clown said nobody has work." I perk up at the mention of the eccentric man who we call Clown. He's one of Corey's friends and whenever he's around we have access to alcohol because he can buy it legally. I eagerly watch the two converse to see what they say next.
"You should check in with him." The large man speaks. He turns to look at me and I become suddenly interested in my calculus binder. "Your brother over there is listening."
"My- oh! You mean Joey? Dear god no he's not my brother, we're friends. He's kind of like a brother though." Corey laughs charismatically, "besides, he has every right to. We're going to be late getting to school."
The two stood up and exchanged a few words before the man approached me.
"Mick. Play guitar." He spoke gruffly.
"I- uhm.." I pause, flustered as he sticks his hand out to me, "I'm Joey. I play the drums but I'm not sure why that's relevant."
He cocks his head. "Scrawny little thing, aren't you? How old are you, something like 15? 16?"
I blink. "I'm.. im 18."
"Lord do you even go outside?" He uses my chin to turn my face and look at me more.
I slap his hand away. "Don't touch me." I wonder why Corey has this guy in my house in the first place.
Speaking of Corey, I search the room for my friend. Lazily throwing my bag over my shoulder, I call out for him. "Corey? Can we leave?"
"In a minute, Jo!"
I sheepishly pull my gaze back to the man in front of me. "You're huge. Like massive. You look like a mountain." I point out, getting at him like he did to me. "Like the Great Wall of man."
He rolls his eyes and lightly shoves my head. "Whatever, twig."
Maybe he's not so bad.
Finally I saw Corey approaching. "Sorry, kid. I misplaced my pack and I.." he trailed off. "We need to get going, mick. I'll try to call you around six to let you know if we're still doing this or not."
"Still doing this?" I echoed as we got into the car. "Who's 'we' and what's 'this'?"
Corey laughed. "You'll see. You're not planning on going out tonight right?"
"No," I shook my head. "Sid said he had something tonight and he's like my only friend other than you."
Corey mumbled a quiet, "good," as we pulled into the school parking lot. Immediately, I hopped out of the car and head inside. People still stare, but not as often as they used to. When I first transferred there, everyone was always on my dick, but not in the fun way. I'd get the classic slurs and jokes about wrist checks and whatnot, but also just people staring. Guess they don't know how to handle a kid with dyed hair and nontypical makeup in central Des Moines.
I swept my hair behind my ears, shoving my bag in my locker and grabbing my things for my first couple classes. Footsteps approached me from behind. At least three people.
'Right on time,' I gritted my teeth.
A hand grabbed a fistful of my hair from behind and pulled my head backwards. I glare up at the perpetrator. A grin spread across my face unwillingly as the guy stared down at me. "Not gonna moan, fag?" He taunted.
I rolled my eyes. "Please, if you're gonna do it at least do it right," I stepped back as he releases me.
His friends growled like dogs behind him.
"You're fucking disgusting."
"I know," I retaliated, "but if you keep getting on me like this, people will think you're gay too."
This freaked him out enough to make him back away quickly.
"Fucking freak." He grumbled, glaring at me as he walked away with his little echo chamber of insecurities.
"Fuck you lookin at?" I barked at a group who had stopped to stare, pushing my hair back once more. I'm not even fucking gay.
Lunchtime is hell if it were condensed into a circular table. I pushed the food around on my tray but didn't even pretend to eat it this time. I simply stared solemnly down at whatever the hell it was imitating.
"Joey." A stern voice spoke from my right. "You need to eat something."
I glanced briefly at Sid, my best friend. "I'm not hungry, Sidney."
He poked my side a few times. "Come on pleeeaaaaaseee. Just eat a little bit."
This attracted the attention of a few other people at our table. I shoved my friend away.
"Seriously, I'm fine, Sid. Leave me alone."
He rolled his eyes. "You at least ate something for breakfast right?"
I threw my head back in exasperation. "Yes, Sid. I did."
"Liar." I caught a glimpse of 133 signing across the table.
Sid slowly turned to me. Fuck 133 and his freaky ability to read people.
"Shut up, 133." I groaned, but signed as I spoke to get my point across. "Bitchass." I wasn't sure if there's a word for that in sign so I spelled it out for him.
He flipped the double bird. I snorted, already preparing a comeback.
Corey shot me a look and I backed down. Instead I got up and threw the dog shit on my tray away before Sidney could make me eat something.
When I returned, the three were talking furiously in sign language and verbal speech about something to which I paid no mind. Instead I stared sleepily at my hands, mindlessly picking my skin. The parts around my nails —I think they're called the cuticle— were angry and red, some were bleeding. There were a few other injuries on my knuckles from drumming. My head was still pounding from the last night and I still felt ill from the morning. Sid wasn't wrong, I knew I should eat something, even though he didn't know I vomited my guts out that morning. Mindlessly, I tied my hair back and into a ponytail. My cheek rested on my palm as I spaced out, observing the action around me. My friends were still messing around, and I caught 133 signing 'you utter buffoons. You absolute idiots and complete dickwads,' or something to that effect. I chuckled. I love when 133 swears in sign language. You can see the anger in his eyes.
133 is mute, which is why we use sign language. Clown knows it too, but he's not around 133 that often, and when he is they just talk. They've known each other for a long time, so he's comfortable talking with clown. It took a little longer for him to get comfortable with me and Sid, since Sid is a lot to deal with at first and I'm me. He still refuses to interact with Wednesday, who is my best friend. He hit it off with Corey right away, according to my housemate.
"Hey hey hey hey hey." Sid spoke into my ear loudly. "Joey."
I looked at him without turning my head.
"What, Sidney?"
"Guess what?"
I blinked.
"It's almost time to redye your hair."
A grin spread across my face. He's right, whenever it's time to touch up my colour he helps me out and we blast music in the bathroom while fixing it.
He leans close and excitedly whispers, "I am beyond excited, I got a new CD and we have GOT to listen to it."
I laugh as he sits back with an accomplished look. Maybe today won't totally suck.

A/N: wooowwww look at that, the Dawn of a new Slipknot story. Istg if anyone starts shipping any of the characters I'm gonna delete this whole story <3