Dreamspinner Press Year Seven Greatest Hits Page 15

  “Wait a second. I thought you were mad.” Danny was confused.

  “Worried,” Tate corrected. “Really worried. We’re going to have to do a lot of work to keep this from causing problems. But if you two found each other and that’s what you need to be happy, then I’m happy for you.”

  “Same with me,” Webb added.

  “Yep,” Reece agreed. “Just remember the rest of us and try not to let anything you’re doing affect the band.”

  “We won’t,” Danny promised. At that moment, he’d promise just about anything to the three guys sitting across from him and Elliot, not judging them, being amazing friends. He couldn’t believe how great they were.

  “Never,” Elliot added. “We’d never want to screw anything up for you guys.”

  “So we’re cool?” Webb asked in his typical laid-back manner.

  “Yep,” Reece said.

  “Of course,” Tate added.

  And that was it. Less than two minutes and it was settled. Solved.

  “Can we go to bed now?” Reece asked around a mouthful of chips.

  “Yeah, I think we’re done. ’Night, D… El.” Tate went to stand.

  “Um, guys?” Elliot’s voice made the other three pause. “For now until we decide what to tell Sasha and the producers, this is between us. Okay?”

  “That’s probably the best idea,” Tate said, ever sensible. “Does anyone else know?”

  “Chris does,” Danny said quietly. “He guessed. Katie guessed too.”

  “So did my mom and my friend Sara, but they won’t say anything.”

  Reece snorted. “I’m thinking a lot of people have figured it out, but unless we confirm things it’ll only be speculation. You two fuckers are not what you’d call subtle.”

  “Or quiet,” Webb added.

  Elliot’s face turned red. “So you knew?”

  Reece rolled his eyes. “Duh. Not everyone is as oblivious as Tate.” He pelted Tate with one of his chips.

  “Hey, those are oily and this is a new shirt!” Tate kicked Reece.

  Just like that, everything felt perfectly normal.

  StaticBand @Official_Static

  Special Video Diary filming tonight at 9 PST!! Tweet the boys your questions to this account and they’ll answer :)

  ELLIOT was nervous before the camera even started rolling. He hated video diaries, always felt like everything he’d said had been awkward and wrong and dorky. Half the time, he just flashed the camera a big smile and let Danny and Reece do most of the talking. This one was going to be even worse than usual. Questions. Questions were never good. He’d already decided to speak as little as possible, let the better actors do their thing, let Danny answer if anyone asked about them. It was best that way.

  “Hi, guys! This video diary is going to be a little different than usual,” Tate said with his own smile as soon as the cameraman signaled they were on. He was good at it too—that charming, inviting smile, friendly voice. All the guys were good at it other than him. Elliot really only felt like he wasn’t a loser when he sang. That he could do. The rest of it… just ugh.

  Webb jumped in with one of his shy, sexy smiles. He’d been getting more vocal lately, and his fans were loving it. “This time, we’re going to listen to you. Answer the questions that have been burning on your mind. Just tweet to the main Static account and we’ll see them!”

  The questions came fast, scrolling down the screen so quickly, Elliot could barely read them in time. The guys chuckled and tried to pick questions to read before they disappeared.

  “Does Reece have a girlfriend?” Tate read aloud.

  “Nope,” Reece grinned. “I am totally, 100 percent single. Call me!” he joked.

  “Would you date a fan, Reece?”

  He sat back with a smile. “I can’t see why not? If I meet a cool girl, then I like her. If she likes our music, then even better.”

  “Would Webb date a fan?” Reece read with a snort.

  Webb looked embarrassed but he shrugged. “I don’t see why not? Our fans are nice girls. We have fun talking to you guys online.”

  “What are your favorite colors?” Danny read. Everyone laughed.

  “You really want to know that?” Tate asked with a confused smile. “Well mine’s blue. Reece?”

  “I like green, but I bet Webb likes pink the best.”

  “Hey,” Webb laughed. “Real men aren’t afraid to like pink.”

  Reece rolled his eyes. “I said nothing about fear. Elliot, what’s your favorite?”

  Ugh. I have to talk. “I like purple.” He smiled at the camera. “Danny?”

  “Red, of course.” Danny held up his red Vans for the camera.

  “How did you guys meet?” Tate read. “Webb, you answer that.”

  “We were all at Blue Horizon, hoping for a contract. Our producer liked what he saw and thought we’d be good together. We all jumped at the chance. He found Elliot here singing in a high school auditorium, so anything’s possible. You really never know when someone’s watching, guys. Keep dreaming.”

  “What superhero would you be?” Tate grinned. “Well, I’d definitely be Batman. He gets the best cars. And I know Danny likes Superman.”

  “And Elliot would be Wonder Woman,” Reece snickered.

  “’Cause I like bracelets?” Elliot laughed. “Hey, maybe they do give me superpowers.” He held up his wrists and bumped his bracelets together. “Make Reece disappear….” Elliot squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them he laughed. “Guess not.”

  Reece turned and punched Elliot on the thigh, and Elliot leaned forward to drape a hug around his shoulders. “You still love me,” Elliot said, stealing Reece’s typical line.

  “What do you look for in a girl?” Webb read from the screen. Of course.

  They all went through one by one listing things, a nice smile, great hair, a girl who could make them laugh. When it got to Elliot he froze. “I, uh….” He couldn’t spit out the word “girl.” Not when all he wanted to say was “Danny.” “I like someone who’s funny, someone who’s nice, can make me laugh. Spontaneous, you know? When you meet someone who’s right it shouldn’t be work… it should just happen.”

  Danny leaned closer and bumped shoulders with Elliot. “Good answer, El.” He squinted at the screen. “When is the album coming out? Oh, that’s an easy one! The album will be out in December. Just three months away.”

  The guys all grinned and high-fived each other.

  “Sweet or salty?” Webb pulled his hat down over his face and snickered.

  “I like salty,” Danny declared.

  “I’m up for either. Or both,” Reece said with a smile. “All food is good food.”

  “Sweet for sure,” Tate said. “El?”

  “I like chips, so I’ll go with salty.”

  “Let’s see…. Have Danny and Elliot ever kissed?” Reece read. The second he realized what he’d said his face turned red. He laughed. Elliot’s face heated immediately, turning red as a tomato he was sure. Danny smacked the back of Reece’s shoulder.

  “Ummm….” Reece scanned for another question, anything to distract from the moment.

  “What’s the next—” Webb started to ask.

  “Does Danny like pickles more than pancakes?” Tate interrupted. He cocked his head to the side. “What does that even mean?”

  The other three guys spoke at once, reading questions, fumbling, trying to make the moment go away. Elliot literally thought he was going to die. His heart tripped in his chest, and he felt dizzy and numb. If he could get up and leave, walk out of the room and never ever go back in front of the camera, he might have taken that option. He and Danny had promised though, and he wasn’t going to ditch his boys.

  Tate cleared his throat. “Okay, I think we’re running out of time for the night, guys! We’ll have to beat The Pixies in another game so we can answer more questions next time!” His smile was relaxed, but he couldn’t be. Not after such a mess.

  The camera turned of
f, and they all sank into their seats in shock. Elliot and Danny gave each other long looks. They should’ve just answered it. Elliot should have just said no or laughed and gave Danny a huge fake kiss just to play the game. That would’ve been the right way to handle it. But could he do that? No, of course not. Instead, he turned red and looked like he was about to pass out from embarrassment. And Tate jumping onto the next question like that hadn’t helped much. Nor had Reece and Webb’s fumbling. The whole thing had been cringeworthy. Elliot for one planned to spend the rest of the night hiding in his room. Maybe even in the closet in his room. With the door locked.

  “That was a disaster, wasn’t it?” Tate asked when they’d all recovered a bit from the shock.

  “Pretty much, yep.” Webb snickered.

  “They’ll just cut that part, I’m sure. I mean, the producers didn’t even want us to act like we were too close of friends. They’re not going to keep something in that makes it look like we’ve been making out.” Danny’s voice sounded rational. Cool. The other guys probably couldn’t hear the slight tremor. Elliot could.

  “But you guys have been making out,” Reece said quietly. The camera crew was gone, but they could easily be on the other side of the door.

  “We’ve gotta figure out a plan,” Danny said. “So we don’t look like idiots again. Sometime this’ll happen live, and there won’t be a cutting room floor to save us.”

  #DELLYISSOOOOTOGETHER #dellykissoncamera #Bandcamploooove

  Elliot flinched every time he turned on his computer. Even days after the episode aired, the trends wouldn’t go away. They’d kept the scene in. The entire embarrassing damn thing. Elliot wanted to hide all the time, but he had to smile and laugh and pretend like he wasn’t about to die of perpetual embarrassment. Still, he disappeared as much as he could. Even without all the drama over their video diary it never had felt natural for Elliot in front of the camera—unless he was singing or talking to Danny. Then everything else faded to nothing and he barely noticed his surroundings.

  But the fans had noticed. They’d definitely noticed. How could they not? Already, there were girls who loved him and Danny as a “bromance,” as much bullshit as that was. But there were others… ones who looked past the cute and had started to notice there was more to it than there was with Reece and Tate. That question might have been a joke, but the direct messages he’d been getting on Twitter weren’t. Reece had been right. Others were noticing, not just people who knew them. But as long as nothing was confirmed, they’d just be guessing, right?

  It still made him nervous.

  “HEY. Can you talk?” He whispered into his phone. They still weren’t supposed to use their cell phones other than emergencies, but it was one. Seriously. He’d hidden himself in their room with the doors locked. He had to talk to someone on the outside or he was going to go nuts. It had been a few weeks since he’d seen Sara the last time. He had to talk to her.

  “Elliot? Hi! I didn’t think I’d hear from you until after the show was done filming. What’s going on? Are you okay?”

  “I guess.” Elliot sighed. “And nothing’s going on, other than me acting like a big idiot over Danny as usual.”

  “He didn’t do anything to you, did he?”

  “Danny?” Elliot was surprised until he thought about how his first statement had sounded. “No, no. He’s great. It’s just that whole thing during the video diary. Those girls asked if we’d ever kissed, and I turned all red. Might as well have just said yes. I thought I’d be able to play it off but I couldn’t, and it’s all over the damn Internet.”

  “So you and Danny are still….”

  Whatever we are. “Yeah. Of course. We just have to be careful after the whole me going home fiasco. And stuff like that damn video diary didn’t help. I’d hoped they would cut that out. I don’t know why they didn’t.”

  “Uh, ratings. Duh.” Sara chuckled. “It’s fine, El. People probably just thought it was because you’re shy or that acting like you’ve kissed was part of the show. I doubt any of them really think you and Danny have a thing.”

  “We do have a thing.” Whatever a thing was. Elliot wanted to call Danny his boyfriend, but with everything going on in their lives that would be impossible. It’s not like they could tell anyone but the guys anyway if they were really together together. Too much was at stake. “And there are lots of girls who can tell.”

  “I know, but most of the fans will never believe it unless you explicitly tell them. They don’t want to believe it. If you’re with Danny, you’ll never be with any of them. Same for him. You saw how popular he got all of a sudden when he broke it off with Katie.”

  “I know.” Elliot sighed. “But Danny’s never even going to meet most of those girls let alone date them. I don’t even want them to think they can….” he added quietly.

  And that was the root of it right there. Elliot didn’t want their fans to think Danny was available. He didn’t want the fans to think he was either. Even if he and Danny weren’t technically any more together than they had been before that talk a few weeks back, he couldn’t deny that they felt like a damn couple. And that was exactly the way he wanted it. But it couldn’t be that way.

  “Oh, El. I wish you could see what I see.” Sara sounded like she wanted to give him a hug. “Danny’s not going to go for one of those girls. The way he looks at you…. It’s so sweet. Like you’re the only thing in his world that really exists. It doesn’t matter what they think.”

  “I—” Elliot didn’t know how to say it. That he needed Danny to look at him like that because nothing else in his world made sense if he didn’t. That he was so ridiculously in love that sometimes it felt like he had lost his mind. But it felt wrong to tell Sara again. He needed to tell Danny.

  “Listen, don’t stress. He loves you.”

  And there was that word again. It seemed like it had taken over Elliot’s entire being. Every thought, every moment, his body was pulsing to the beat of DannyDannyDannnyloveyouloveyouloveyou. Elliot wanted to tell him. He felt like they were so close to the words already. He just… yeah. Didn’t know if he had the guts to be the first one.

  Elliot hung up the phone and flopped back against his bed, a bed that always seemed to smell like Danny these days. They didn’t have long left in the house. Filming ended in less than two weeks, and after that they had over a month until they left for the radio tour to promote “Fool for Love.” Those blank weeks, that time when Elliot had to go home and try to be the kid he was back in June, made his heart race. But he could do it, even permanently he could do it. He could easily live without the cameras and the fans, the paychecks that had made his eyes bug out, the interviews… even the recording. None of that was real life, and all of it could go away. As long as he didn’t lose Danny and the guys. Just the thought of how many twists of fate had brought them together had Elliot’s heart pounding. The idea that they easily could’ve never met scared the hell out of him.

  He was about to go take a long shower and try to snap out of feeling sorry for himself when his phone buzzed against his thigh. Sara.

  “YOU’RE still stressing, aren’t you? Stop :( btw… you can tell Tate and Reece that we’re waiting for their kiss too. Hot hot hot!!”

  Elliot snorted out a laugh. No way in hell was he saying that. At least it took him out of his funk. Everything was okay. He had met Danny. And maybe they weren’t ready for the big leagues, declarations of love and promises of forever. Didn’t mean Elliot couldn’t be happy with things the way they were. Listen to Sara. She’s a smart girl. Look where her advice has gotten you so far.

  “AND that’s a wrap, guys.” The studio tech Mark lifted his hands from where he’d had the recording button pressed. They all looked at each other not even sure how to react.

  “We’re done?” Elliot asked.

  “Yep.” Sasha came into the studio with a bottle of champagne and an armful of plastic cups. “Congratulations. It’s going to sound great. I can hear the girls screaming al
ready.”

  More like he can hear the cash registers cha-chinging.

  Danny hated to be cynical. He knew every business was about money, but the dollar signs in Sasha’s eyes when he looked at Elliot kind of pissed Danny off. They had since day one. Elliot was so much more than a pretty face or those sweet floppy curls. Yeah, the girls liked him, and they were going to like him even more if Static really took off, but was that all there was to him, or to any of them? Were they really just pretty products to sell?

  “Hey, Sasha. The guys and I were talking,” Reece started. “You know that track that Chris and I wrote, ‘One More Time’? We were thinking that would be a great first single instead of ‘Fool for Love’. It’s more us, you know. And it really shows off what we can do.”

  Reece was right. That song was so much better than a lot of what was on the album, which was mostly cutesy pop, but he knew before Sasha spoke what the answer was going to be.

  “Not this time, boys. Not for the first single. We need that song you can’t help humming along to in the car, the one that drives you nuts because you can’t get it out of your head. ‘Fool for Love’ is that song. It’s peppy and fun and when we put it with a video the girls will drool.”

  “It’s not us.”

  “It’s Static. And Static is what we’re trying to build here. There will be time later for your individuality to come out. That’s not what fans are buying.”

  Danny knew that. Hell, he’d known that since the day he stood in front of Sasha back in the spring and said all he’d ever wanted to do was entertain people. They weren’t Chris, who made his fans happy with his guitar and a microphone. They were never going to be Chris. Danny was fine with that. He still wanted to be more than just a brand. It wasn’t going to happen that day though. Sasha was the boss, and Danny and his four friends didn’t have a damn bit of power.