Pretty Boy ☆ Joshler

fifteen

"I need coffee. Now." Josh mumbled miserably as he rustled through a pile of clothes at the foot of his bed. Josh was sore, limbs twice as heavy as usual, and he was already annoyed at the amount of yawns forcing their way out of his mouth every other minute. His sweatpants and maybe, maybe not clean shirt were the best he could do without a caffeine dose. His legs protested as he stood, selected clothes in hand, and he pretended not to hear Brendon's snicker from across the room.

Brendon, who had already dressed and eaten, held a smug smirk, "You did this to yourself, Joshua."

"No. Tyler did this to me." Josh disappeared into the bathroom momentarily to prepare for the extremely long day ahead of him. The bathroom mirror told him that he was sporting some heavy baggage under his eyes this morning. There was no way he could sneak out of the house looking like hell. His mom would hound him for staying up late and that would somehow lead to him letting it slip where he was last night. Brendon wouldn't defend him, he was sure. Pulling out his phone, he decided this was a job for someone with a little experience.

The line rang a few times before the familiar voice answered, "Sup." That one word lightened Josh's mood and his reflection smiled back at him.

"Do you always answer your phone with 'sup'?"

A light laugh, "I have caller ID, Josh. Do you always call people so early in the morning?"

Josh checked the time, wincing when he remembered the time zone difference, "Ohh, sorry, Ash. You're an hour behind me, right?"

"Ha, two hours. But it's okay. What's up?"

After a quick description of the dark circles under his eyes, Josh was reminded of a small makeup kit that had been forgotten in the lowest drawer of the spare bathroom. He listened to Ashley's application directions as he went to retrieve the kit. Looking at the different containers and tools, he tried to pretend he could see the difference between the five application brushes. Ashley was still talking and Josh was completely lost.

"It's really easy. Do you understand how to do it?"

"Yep. I get it. Should be easy." Josh shook his head and sat the kit back down.

"Awesome," He could hear the smile in her voice. "Hurry up so you can get to school on time. And stop staying up so late."

"Okay, little sister." Another tinkling laugh and she was gone; Josh hoped she would be able to go back to sleep.

He crinkled his nose, looking from his reflection to the kit and back again. This would be anything but easy.

"Brendon!!" He wasn't sure why, but Josh had a feeling the other boy could help him, maybe offer some moral support. He at least wanted an outside opinion to tell him if he looked strange or not when he finished. Socked feet thudded softly on the shag carpet as Brendon approached the open bathroom door.

Brendon made a pointed look at the makeup on the counter, "You have ten minutes left to get ready. I don't think you can apply a full face of makeup in that time frame."

"Good thing that's not what I want to do," Josh singled out the eye shadow palette from the miscellaneous pile of tools and products. "I need to look somewhat awake before I go downstairs. My sister said I can use white eyeshadow or something and accent my eyes...?"

"Oh, yeah," Brendon nodded. He checked the palette for white and nodded again, as if further justifying that it was possible, but his mouth stayed silent.

"So... can you do it for me?"

"I don't think it'll help as much as you imagine," Hands fiddling with the eyeshadow and holding the palette up to Josh's face, Brendon murmered not-so-quietly. "I mean you look like absolute death..."