semi-automatic ; j.d

seventeen ; an argueable amount of broken ornaments

after changing in the small bathroom, she puts her makeup bag on the sink and starts doing her usual routine. about ten minutes in, josh knocks on the door.

"babe?"

"hmm?" she replies, focusing on not stabbing herself in the eyes with the mascara brush.

his fingers tap a random rhythm against the door. "whatcha doooooin?" drawls out josh.

she sets down the mascara wand and clicks open the door, looking at josh with amusement. "transforming myself from a ten year old boy to an actual young adult girl."

"you're ridiculous," he tells her with a roll of his eyes. squeezing past her in the small doorway, he sits down on the closed toilet lid to watch her while she puts her makeup on. "i think you look gorgeous either way."

mia grins when he tells her this, because normally when people give her compliments her instinct is to become defensive about it, but accepting them has become something she's working on. so instead of arguing with josh about it she just says, "thanks."

"mhm," he hums in response and then picks up the little pink tube of mascara, frowning as he reads the label. "better than sex?"

"that's the name of it, josh," she laughs while glancing in the mirror as she coats her dark lashes in product.

after setting it back down he mutters, "that's a weird name."

"that's a weird name," she mimics.

"it is!" he insists, grinning up at her. "i don't understand how makeup is supposedly 'better than sex'."

mia shrugs her shoulders in response and twists the top back on the mascara tube and then grabs her black liquid eyeliner. "i dunno, i'm the wrong person to ask about that."

"oh," he says, and then he realizes that she's saying that she never-that she doesn't- that she's a virgin. "oh," he repeats it while nodding his head. "cool."

mia gives him a sideways glance, raising one of her shapely eyebrows. "cool?" she repeats, not sure if his 'cool' means the same as her usually passive use of  'cool', and if he actually means that he finds it cool that she's never had sex.

josh begins playing with his fingers now out of habit. "yeah, cool," he says. "i mean it would still be cool if you weren't-like if you had, y'know-"

"if i had sex."

"yeah, it'd still be cool," he shrugs. "i don't care about that sort of stuff, anyways. well i mean if you told me you were a stripper or something then i might care a little."

"do i look like a stripper to you?" she asks, thoroughly amused by josh's little rambles.

his eyes widen a bit and now he's shaking his head. "no, no, that's not what i meant! you look like, like i dunno, a nice girl."

"strippers can be nice, too, yoshua."

"i give up," josh sighs, grinning at mia as he decides not to say anything back to that.

mia stifles a laugh as she tries to focus on flickering out her eyeliner to make a wing. "good choice."

neither of them talk for a minute while she does her makeup and josh watches, just observing how she makes everything look so effortless.

"i like how you look," he tells her.

"yeah?"

josh nods. "yeah. cause you don't dress like you're, y'know, trying to show everything off," he says as his lame explanation for saying that she doesn't dress like a thot (A/N WHICH IS YOUR CHOICE LADIES IF U WANNA WEAR CLOTHES THAT MAKE U FEEL CUTE AND GLAMOROUS THEN U DO IT). "and you always look great, whether it's in your sweats or when you get all done up."

mia blinks a few times as she glances at her eyeliner, trying to see if it's even. "thanks, j."

"yeah, of course," he says, waving it off. he thinks it's important that she knows how amazing he thinks she is, and that she thinks that about herself, too.

once she's okay with how her makeup looks they leave the bathroom and grab their coats before getting off the bus. the show tonight is in new york city, which is sold out.

josh hums under his breath as he scrolls through the list of coffee shops that pop up after he searched for the closest ones. "there's like fifteen," he tells mia, showing her his phone screen. "and they're all pretty much the same distance."

"hmm, okay, which one do you wanna go to?" she asks.

josh gives her a straight expression. "i dunno, this decision is too overwhelming."

mia grins, "eenie meenie miny moe?"

"great idea," he laughs and then settles on a place that's about a mile's walk away from the venue called 'leaf & bean' (A/N THATS A REAL PLACE BY ME AND THE COFFEE IS BOMB AF).

mia makes a face a bit. "leaf and bean," she repeats. "what kind of name is that for a coffee place?"

"like tea leaves and coffee beans," says josh, laughing at the face she makes. "and should you really be knocking down weird names when you use a mascara called 'better than sex'?"

"smart ass," she mumbles, shaking her head while her lips pull in to hide the growing smile. she looks straight ahead as they walk.

"speaking of ass.." he trails off.

she looks at him, "don't even think about it."

"aw c'mon, you're no fun."

"i'm a fucking blast."

"mhm, sure," he mutters under his breath with playful sarcasm, his voice loud enough for her to hear.

mia smacks his shoulder. "meanie."

josh glances over at her with a pout on his lips. "aw, baby, i'm sorry, did that hurt your feelings?"

"a little bit," she shrugs her shoulders. trying to stay serious and not crack a grin is extremely hard.

he wraps one of his arms around her waist, pulling her into his side. "you're a fucking blast," he finally admits and presses a kiss to the side of her head. "i mean who else breaks seven light bulbs while putting up a christmas tree? if that's not fun, i don't know what is."

"it was four!"

"nah, i'm pretty sure it was seven."

"i'm pretty sure you weren't there."

"and i'm pretty sure i saw you drop seven ornaments on the ground through skype."

"i'm pretty sure you should shut up."

"i'm pretty sure i can do that."