Chaos.
I opened that studio door to absolute and utter chaos...and I smiled.
My ears instantly perk at the sound of a bellowing laugh to my right, turning my head to find none other than my beautiful Antonio.
Tony is my mentor of sorts, I assist for him whenever I can and he gives me life advice while fueling my smoothie addiction.
"Dollface! Get your ass in here, I need your hands." He shouts with a smile as soon as his eyes meet mine.
I shimmy my way around some dancers that are covered in white powder, ghosts is my guess, and set my case at the front of the room before I make my way to Tony's side.
It smells like sweat, makeup, and some form of essential oil in this room. Does someone have a diffuser going? Seriously?
My theory is debunked when Tony whips his thick braid of hair my direction and I'm slapped in the face with a wave tea tree oil and mint.
That man rubs more potions into his hair than anyone I've met and he swears it's the secret to his beauty.
Maybe I should invest in some and I'll magically grow luscious, thick hair and develop a beautiful olive skin tone over night. Then I'll be as beautiful as Tony and I'll never have to worry about a man falling out of love with me again.
I chuckle quietly under my breath before giving my full attention to watching Antonio create a masterpiece on this face.
He blends vibrant reds into rich fuchsia shades and then cuts them with a creamy green, flicking the ends in feather like strokes to create small thorns. He's turning her into a flower.
I'm awe-struck watching him work. Handing him brushes and sponges like a robot while staring at the visual he's creating before my eyes.
My subconscious hears his rambling about a garden scene and Katy Perry performing one of her new singles, but my attention is solely focused on the human canvas in front of me.
My day dreaming is rudely interrupted by a frantic assistant, shouting." Some of the male performers don't have any makeup on and we need to start filming them in two hours! HOURS TONY!"
Antonio doesn't even take his eyes off his work when we speaks slowly, "Do they need dramatic, specialized looks or just the television regular?"
"Just regular I suppose, unless any of them have requests." The assistant snips back.
Antonio nods his head and lifts his eyes from his canvas to survey the room quickly. "Jo can do it. " he says. My eyes go wide as he turns to me "You've got your kit right? You can handle it."
Respond. Nod your head or something, PLEASE.
I think my head is nodding? It must be, because Tony takes his brushes back to put them on the stand and kisses my cheek as he says "Hurry back to me, dollface. You've got this."
I try to swallow and I swear to god my saliva is as thick as 3 day old oatmeal.
Okay first, gross. Second, stop panicking.
It takes me less than a second to snap out of it, connect my brain to my body again, and I'm on the move.
I'm thanking all my lucky stars that I took the time to change into some black leggings and a my lucky shirt before I left the house, I could never move this fast in skinny jeans.
The lucky shirt is very real and very powerful.
My grandfather passed it on to me before he died, and I will continue reaping the benefits of its good fortune until I run out of luck.
It's silky material feels so soft on my skin, and It's approximately 3 sizes too big for me, making it the optimal comfort piece that's easy to move in but still chic because of its beautiful champagne color that looks killer over a black outfit.
Grandpa had excellent taste.
I'm doing an impressive job of keeping up with this assistant as his petite frame seems to evaporate between people.
I'm far too focused on catching up with him to worry about the fact that I'm walking a room of "male performers."
Performers of what? Are we talking like magic mike type of performers? Comedians? Circus Acts? What the hell am I walking into? The only thing I know about this gig is that it's a Halloween TV special. I didn't even know what show it was for until I got here!
I follow him inside the room without a second thought, nodding quickly as he spins around and walked out, evaporating again.
Just *POOF* gone.
It's just about then that my mind catches up to my body and I feel the anxiety wash through my veins as my pulse begins to pound loudly in my temples.
I turn around quickly, trying to seem professional and fake as much confidence as I can while I face the room of mysterious "male performers."
Holy fucking hell.
This is not happening.
Am I breathing? Am I BREATHING!?
I inhale a deep breathe quickly, blinking slowly at the dressing room of men. Once again, thanking those lucky stars that they can't see my jaw on the floor behind my black mask.
A brief silver lining in these strange times...we still have to wear masks when performing any facial serves that require us to be a certain distance apart...which really saves my ass when I work with celebrities. They can't see the dumb, shocked expressions I'm making.
Post Malone is sitting on a couch with Ozzy Osbourne, neither taking more then a second to look my way.
Lil Nas X is playing a game on his phone from a makeup chair thats been pushed to the side of the room.
I'm pretty sure Shawn Mendes is walking towards me but my brain can't process that right now because to the right of him there are two men sitting in lounge chairs laughing together.
The first of those men is Ed Sheeran, his eyes crinkle while he shakes his head in laughter at the man across from him...
Harry. Edward. Fucking. Styles.
No fuckin way. No WAY. NO WAY. Oh SHIT KEEP CALM. Be cool. You're chill. You're the CHILLEST. You are just a normal person, here to do a job. You will not freak out because you'll get to touch Harry Styles face.
No, nope. Not gonna freak out about it.
"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Shawn, thank you for helping us out tonight! He snaps me out of my panic as I shake his hand and introduce myself to him. He's taller in person than I imagined but just as adorable as I assumed he'd be.
I finish Shawn fairly quickly, even after I talked him into a smoked out eyeliner look to compliment his vampire costume. We made easy conversation about LA and music, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him.
Next up was Lil Nas X, we did the TV regular for him but gave it a little fun twist with glittery red "blood." His mobster costume didn't need much embellishment, but we had fun. He was very quiet at first, but quickly came out of his shell and was extremely nice.
My hands only shook a little bit while I worked on Mr. Malone, which was impressive. He made me laugh though, easing my nerves significantly after the first few minutes in his presence, keeping Ozzy and myself both locked into his story. I gave him an iridescent highlight to match his angel costume and he took at least 5 selfies with it on. One of them with me.
No big deal, Post Malone just has a picture with me in his personal camera roll...no need to freak out. It's alllllllll fine. Very normal.
Ed takes me exactly 25 minutes, and then puts his wizard cloak on. I tried so hard to hold in a laugh but I just couldn't help it when he put the hat on, a small cackle burst quickly from my lips and then my ears heard a familiar laugh approach my side.
"You do look absolutely ridiculous, mate. I love it." Harry speaks while he chuckles and claps his hands slowly.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Play it cool. Do not be creepy. Do not be weird. Remain calm. For gods sake, breathe.
I inhale just a little too loudly, approaching the point of a gasp and it turns Harry's attention my direction.
"Hello, I'm Harry. It's a pleasure to meet you, you've done great work tonight." He gives me a small wave and returns his hands to his pockets while he speaks to me.
Speaks to me.
Harry Styles is speaking to me.
Oh my god.
RESPOND, JO. CHILL.
I can feel my head nodding like an idiot but I simply cannot stop it."Nice to meet you as well, I'm Jo. Josephine. Jo. I'm Jo."
Oh good lord.
"Uhm, thank you very much! Uh, are you ready for your look now? Did you need more time?" I can't stop moving my hands. while I speak, and I'm rolling my rings until my fingers go raw again.
"Ready whenever you are!" His tone is excited and joyful as he sits down in the tall chair. I'm regulating my breathing as I approach him and willing my hands to stay steady, begging them not to give me away.
We chat a bit about the kind of look he's wanting, keeping it pretty simple, adding a few highlights and contours to make his god like features stand out even more.
"Are you excited for the special?" I ask, while I flick a spoolie through his eyebrows to tame them into a shape. Quite impressed with the steady tone of my voice and the casual questions I've mustered up so far.
"I am, yeah. I was supposed to be doing an event at Madison Square Garden this year on Halloween, but we rescheduled it to next year for obvious reasons." He is looking up at me while I hyper-focus on his eyebrows, trying to get them perfect.
"So I'm glad to be here. There's not usually a dull moment on James's show, we can pretty much count on it being a good time." He says with a smile.
I still can't believe I'm doing makeup for The Late Late Show. This is by far the biggest job I've ever worked on. This is such a big deal, holy shit, I can't wait to tell Nicki. She's gonna be so pissed that I met Post Malone without her...
"Seems like a good replacement for Harryween until next year." I mumble quickly as I avoid eye contact by shuffling through my kit.
He smiles brightly, making my heart clench while he says "Ah, you know the event?" I recover quickly with only a tiny white lie. Not even a lie really, just not telling the whole truth..
"Yeah, a couple of my friends have tickets. They're really excited for next year!" I leave out the fact that I also have tickets... and tickets to 3 other shows on the tour.
I also leave out the fact that I have his overpriced water bottle sitting my car, which has his face hanging from the rear view mirror. I also choose not to mention that I have well over 15 clothing items with his lyrics on them or the poster of him naked hanging in the living room of my apartment.
I don't mention those things because I'm trying not to scare him into a restraining order. I'm being very, VERY, chill.
"That's wonderful, I hope they enjoy it." He looks down at his hands in his lap now and I notice him spin his silver ring that says "peace" on it around his finger a few times.
"I have no doubt that they will absolutely love it." I tell him sincerely. He gives me a small smile when he looks up at me and my stomach twists into a painful knot. He looks almost worried.
"Am I allowed to know what you're performing tonight?" I ask brightly, really trying to seem mentally stable and like I'm not screaming internally at being this close to him.
"I'm doing the Monster Mash." He says proudly. I think hearing "monster mash" in his accent might be the cutest thing I've ever heard.
"That's incredible!" I laugh, "I cant wait to see what you're wearing."
"We went for a bit of a modern day Frankenstein." He says while I powder under his eyes.
My face lights up and I make eye contact with him for the first time in a while, "Frankie!? Well you probably need some stitches then, huh?"
"Stitches?" He raises an eyebrow at me while I laugh softly and nod my head. "Sure, why not?" He agrees with quick shrug.
My smile is huge and very dorky under this mask, I know my eyes are doing the crinkly thing while I grab a black gel liner and a detailing brush.
I give him some quick stitches around his hairline, which made me sweaty, and a small set on his temple.
I was so close to his face, I held my breathe almost the entire time, in sheer panic.
He checked himself out in the mirror with a smile and my heart falls into my ass when he meets me eyes in the mirror and says "Well done, Jo! Looks fantastic, really."
Harry Styles just said my name.
I smile back at him, even though he can't see it and thank him while I put my things away.
Before I know it, everyone is off to get dressed, and the crews are rounding up performers to get them ready for filming to begin. This special won't air for another couple weeks but I already know I'll set my TV to record it as soon as I get home.
I've just set my kit back against a wall when I feel a hand behind me, rest on my arm. "The stitches really do make the look, brilliant idea, Jo." His warm voice comes at me from the side while I turn to see him.
I have no mask on now, being done with my services, so there is no shield to hide my jaw hitting the floor. I choose to clench it instead which I'm sure makes me look equally as stupid but it's better than the alternative.
Standing before me is Harry Styles, dressed in black, wide legged trousers, and a green, sheer t-shirt. Around his neck lays his signature pearl necklace but this one is a choker and has two large, silver rod looking pieces that stick out on the sides. His unruly hair is perfectly tousled back and the magic touch is the huge platform boots on his feet.
Do not squeal. Do not cry. You just have to make it to your car and then we can process these emotions.
"Happy to help," I mumble while trying to relax my jaw. "You look fantastic!" I smile at him again, taking in the incredible look one more time.
"Thank you!" He says quickly, twisting his rings again. "It was lovely to meet you, Jo. I hope we get to see each other again soon."
I only manage to nod my quickly and and sputter out "Yeah, thank you. That would be great. Bye Harry!" Before he's off to backstage and I'm left shaking like an idiot.
Antonio finds me before I have time to have a breakdown and wraps me a big hug. "You did it, doll! How'd it go? They all look great. I'm so proud of you!" He rambles into my ear while he has my feet coming off the ground.
"Honestly, I think I blacked out. I don't remember much of it." I laugh as he sets me down.
"It was incredible though, I can't thank you enough for giving me the opportunity. Do you want me to stay for any touch-up help?"
He shakes his head and tells me to get my ass home and get some beauty sleep. I've been there for hours now, helping Anthony after I was done with Harry. Everyone looked fantastic, I couldn't wait to see the performances.
•••
By the time I drag myself through the front door Nicki is fast asleep in her bed and I don't feel like waking her to tell her the news. I also don't have a death wish currently which means I will not be waking her up from her sleep at any point in the future.
I'm far too wired from the events from the evening to sleep, so after getting ready for bed, taking several minutes to thank my lucky shirt for tonight, and then tossing and turning for a half hour or so I pick up my phone and place a call to Australia, it's tomorrow there now anyways.
Britt will loose her fucking mind over this.
————————
Hey, hi, hello,
They have officially met. I was really looking forward to getting this initial meeting over with cause I have so many fun things planned for Jo and Harry!
Thank you for being here💖