Chapter Text
Joel looked up into the cheering crowd as Skizz's guitar belted out the last cord of their track. He ran up to the front of the stage, grouping up with the rest of the band. He threw his drum sticks off the stage and into a group of fans, grinning wide as he caught sight of a camera pointed in their direction. He grabbed Jimmy by the shoulder as he gave his thank you speech to the crowd. Joel loved this feeling. The eyes shining up at them, that energy bounding throughout his body, feeling his aching arms for the first time. It was part of the reason he loved these tours, despite how exhausting and daunting it may be.
The Rejects slipped backstage, erupting in cheers of their own to another fantastic concert well done. BigB (No one actually knows his name. Not even The Rejects themselves.) tossed a can of soda to Jimmy, and collapsed back on his couch.
Skizz laughed as Jimmy remarked on their 'impeccable instrument-ing.'"Oh, dude I messed up so bad once! I started playing the cords to a completely different song, dude."
"Seriously? Aw, Skizz." Jimmy giggled along.
"Now we gotta redo the whole thing." BigB joked, wiping sweat off his forehead with his arm warmers.
"Don't even say that BigB." Jimmy groaned, crumpling into the cushions. He kept chugging down his soda, getting some of it dripping down his chin.
"Dude, there's gonna be like fifty clips of you messing up online and I'm gonna laugh at each one." Joel teased. "I might even send them to you."
"Beans!"
"What!? You did that to me when I messed up in Bridges a while back. Only fair I get my revenge."
Skizz retaliated by chucking a guitar pick at his general direction. Which ended up hitting Jimmy on the head. A faint 'Sorry Jiggles!" was heard in the background through their laughter.
A few sodas, one bottle of alcohol opened by Skizz, and a few more petty arguments later, Joel decided to return back to his hotel on his own and get some quiet time to himself. He slipped out the backdoor of the venue, into the dim lights. The difference between the backstage and the outside world was evident. His sweat-soaked shirt cooled quickly and shocked his hot skin quite pleasantly. Joel stood outside for a moment, just to appreciate the coolness hitting his skin, when he heard a voice calling his name.
"Sorry, uh, we don't really do signings today." Joel sighed, wondering if he should turn back and just wait for the van to come pick them up. It wasn't worth dealing with some fan who, now that he realized, probably sneaked their way in here. "What are you doing here anyway? You shouldn't be here."
"I convinced security that I was a close friend." The voice in the dark said. Joel thought his voice to be somewhat recognizable.
Joel was about respond snarkily to the voice when the bulb in his head finally lit up. He squinted his eyes and, sure it was. It was Scott standing out in the dark.
Joel wasn't sure how to react to his rival appearing here. Firing that security guard was probably a good response, first of all. How he didn't know the face of the lead of the biggest rival of the band was a mystery.
"Scott." Joel said lamely. "How did you know where i was anyway?
"Yes, Joel." He grinned. "You post about your tour locations everywhere. Harder to not know where you are. Its a nice venue."
Joel scoffed. He was getting nervous of all things. He bit the inside of his cheeks as his mind blanked. "What are you doing here?"
Scott strode closer to him, his sharp expression glowing in the light. Joel almost forgot how tall Scott was compared to him. The way his blue hair fell on his face made his mind imagine things he always despised himself for. "Just paying a visit."
"For who? I'm not letting you inside to see Jim, if that's who you want."
Scott giggled. "No, silly. For you."
"Oh." Joel's hand loosened. "Right."
"I have a little proposal for you." Scott said. His eyes twinkled softly in the light.
"Right." Joel nodded, unsure what to say.
"So- You know how our fans like seeing us interact?"
"Yeah." Joel nodded along again. In wasn't too surprising; as a popular video put it: "it's two people in two well-known bands with a weird rival relationship going on. The fans ate up the drama like a snake." In fact, Joel suspected it was a good chunk of the reason they were mainstream. Interviews featuring them went viral, occasional videos would float around of them or their band members interacting at big tours. It spread like wildfire.
"So I was thinking… Well, Gem was thinking, actually. What if we collaborated?"
"What?" Joel squinted at Scott. 'Collaborate' wasn't exactly the word he expected to hear come out of his mouth. Especially not said with a tone that suggested a something else.
"Well, I mean, you said you know about the fans going crazy when they see us together. But like, do you know why?"
"I mean, drama, isn't it? They think we're just two happy little friends who used to be in the same high school band. And now we're rivals."
"You're close." Scott said, pondering on a word. His index finger rested on his bottom lip. "The fans… They like thinking we're together."
Joel paused. He almost wanted to retort at him, but the words didn't come out quite well. He backtracked and examined that word in his head. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding in. Together? As in… "You're kidding." Joel said lamely.
Scott shook his head. Joel scoffed at him, but he couldn't see any lies written on his face.
"So… my proposal is— Well, Gem's, technically— is that if we feed into that thought, that belief, we'd get more attention."
"So- So what? I mean-" Joel sputtered. "More attention? This is bloody ridiculous, Scott." He chewed on his lips, eyes darting around. He couldn't deny that attention is something he liked, yes, but this? Joel backed off, his back hitting the door back into the building. He pushed it open, watching Scott's face as the light illuminated their silhouettes.
Scott watched silently as Joel lingered on the door, like an owl in the dark snow. It was almost irritating how unreadable his face had turned all of a sudden. It was irritating because it was Scott.
"That's not an option then?" Scott said after a cold moment of silence. Joel sputtered again.
"No! Definitely not, Scott." Joel took the second moment of silence as a cue to finally turn his back and return back to his bandmates, and ride back with them instead. "I'm not going to act like I'm- like we're together just for some more attention, Scott! And- You can tell your bloody useless band to fuck off!"
Joel finally slammed the door. He rested on the wall for a moment to catch his breath. What a stupid meet up that was. When he returned to the rest of his bandmates, they were gathering their instruments and clothing off of sofas and uncomfortably plush chairs.
Skizz pointed at him, noticing his presence as he hauled his guitar onto his back. "Beans! You're back?"
"Yeah, yeah. Got scared of my own shadow or something." Joel shrugged, drawing a quick laugh from the band.
BigB made a joke about a Boogeyman spotting in this area, but Joel wasn't quite listening. His head wandered off to Scott's words. He liked attention, yes. But would he go to the lengths of what Scott was insinuating? Not a chance. He scowled at himself for thinking too hard on it. It was best to forget it and move on as another dumb idea. Scott's band had many odd ideas.
Joel had been successful at ignoring Scott's (Gem's) suggestion for the remainder of the tour. It was a blast performing, even if some locations weren't as crowded or as packed as they had hoped. But it was thrilling nonetheless. He remained in quite a good mood for a few long days, until he had been told of an upcoming interview at a con with none other than Scott's bloody awful band. It was then the proposal floated to his mind.
Joel sat on the very edge of the table during the interview, as far as Scott as he possibly can. He didn't dare shoot any glances at Scott. He didn't want it to be anymore awkward than it should be. Other than that, he kept up his band persona as much as possible. He shot a few crude jokes when asked about Scott and his band. And he made hand gestures when Scott started to drag the story of his concert experience, which got a few laughs from some attentive fans in the audience. It was nothing different from the usual.
They headed back to their hotel without much banter after the interview. Joel immediately holed back into his room, stretching out on his bed. As he took his phone out, a thought crept into his mind. Was Scott saying the truth about them? About… what their fans thought of their relationship? It didn't take too long to find a clip of their interview from today. The video was captioned:
Spotted Scott and Joel at Sunsets con together! What do we think?
The fact that it was only their two names left a bitter taste on Joel's tongue. Its not like they were the only ones together. His thumb hovered over the comments button. He almost felt embarrassed, like he was going to be found snooping through his own videos like an egotistical dick. (He wasn't that egotistical.)
Joel sighed and threw his phone onto the foot of the bed, where it flopped and slid off the smooth cover. The thought of others thinking he was close like that with Scott filled his head with an odd anger. Joel fell back onto the bed, listening to the idle sounds of the hotel. A TV playing in another room, the restless footsteps of a daydreamer upstairs. Joel couldn't describe the feeling that flooded him as he thought about what the comments could be theorizing about him and Scott. He didn't want to know.
They're better off as enemies, anyway.