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  Reece jumped on Elliot’s back. “Let’s go, Elli-bean.”

  Elliot groaned. “Did you seriously just call me that?”

  Reece ruffled Elliot’s hair as he slid down to his feet. “What do you want me to call you? Cupcake? You’re just so cute and sweet.”

  “Am not,” Elliot argued as he followed Reece out of the room. “I’m a badass.”

  All four of the other guys laughed. As he turned back, he noticed the camera guy turning his camera toward the wall and fiddling with a few buttons.

  INSTEAD of a late dinner with the rest of Static, Elliot wandered toward the pool in the backyard. He needed a breather, needed a second to figure things out. Well, that wasn’t true. There wasn’t anything to figure out. Danny was hot. Elliot was attracted to him. And he liked him so much already as a friend and as a guy he was attracted to. But Danny had a girlfriend. And he was straight. Besides, they were in Static together. Also a problem. Truth was, though, Elliot hadn’t felt so much for anyone since, well, since ever. He’d never been so gut-churningly, instantly attracted to anyone before. Why did he have to pick the absolute worst candidate for it? Danny was so far out of his league, so off-limits, and he was his friend, just like Tate, Webb, and Reece. Elliot wished he could feel the same about Danny as he did the other three. It would be so much easier.

  The night wasn’t bad, balmy for midsummer. The breeze from the ocean helped. Elliot imagined he could almost hear the waves. They weren’t too far from the beach in the big house where they were filming. The backyard was nice too. A lot nicer than the yards in the middle-class suburb where he’d grown up. It had this huge pool and a ton of really nice lawn furniture. Elliot kicked his shoes off and rolled up the bottoms of his khakis before he sank down onto the ledge of the pool and stuck his feet in.

  Sometimes he wondered when all of it would really sink in, when it would hit him that his life had totally changed. He wasn’t just Elliot Price from Palmdale anymore. He was… well, he wasn’t sure what he was. But it wasn’t the same kid he’d been a month before. That much was certain.

  “You diggin’ the alone time, or can I sit?”

  Elliot tipped his head up. It was Chris, the solo guitarist with the gorgeous moonlight voice and more talent than Elliot could ever imagine having. They’d all hung out that first night, but things had been so busy that he’d not gotten much chance to talk to him since. Chris had his guitar slung over his shoulder, like he had most of the times Elliot had seen him. He seemed like a cool guy. Elliot nodded.

  “Hey, Chris. Sure. Have a seat.”

  “You sure?”

  Elliot nodded again. “Of course.”

  Chris toed off his flip-flops and plopped down next to Elliot. He had on cargo shorts and a somewhat ratty T-shirt. His blond hair was in what seemed to be perpetual disarray, and he was smiling, which also seemed to be a permanent fixture. Elliot already liked him.

  “What are you doing out here alone?” Chris asked. He propped his guitar on his thighs and strummed a few notes.

  “Just relaxing. We had to do that video diary thing. I suck at being, I don’t know. Whatever it is.”

  “On stage?” Chris asked with a slight laugh.

  Elliot smiled at the irony, ’cause really if they succeeded, the stage was where they’d be for most of their time. “It’s different. I love singing, performing that way, you know, but it’s hard when I just have to sit there and talk. Who cares what I have to say?”

  Chris looked Elliot up and down. “I’m guessing quite a few girls will care a lot about what you have to say. Especially after they hear you sing.”

  Elliot chuckled, blushing. “Yeah, that’s what Danny said too.”

  “Which one’s Danny again?”

  “Auburn hair, green eyes, loud….”

  Chris nodded knowingly. “Ahhh, yes. Him.”

  “He’s hard to miss.” Elliot couldn’t help smiling. He tried to get rid of the smile, like it was too telling, like Chris would see the reason behind it.

  “What’s on your schedule for tomorrow?” Chris asked.

  They’d all received thick schedules for the week, including times for recording and interviews but also dumb stuff like games with the other members of the house. Elliot supposed that would be fun, make everything a little less serious. “I think we’re supposed to play volleyball with The Pixies tomorrow.” He rolled his eyes. “But in the afternoon we’re going to the studio. I’m excited to get back to singing.”

  They’d been spending so much time settling in that they’d barely rehearsed. Elliot wanted to get back there. He already missed being alone in a room with the guys and Keller just making music.

  “Cool, cool. I think I’m going to be in the studio in the morning. We’ll probably just miss each other.” Chris started picking out a melody on his guitar.

  “Hey, is that ‘Monsoon’?”

  Chris smiled. “You like Tokio Hotel?”

  “Of course.” Elliot liked most music, but alternative had always been his main thing… if you could call Tokio Hotel alternative. He liked them anyway.

  “You know the words?”

  “I think so. I’ll try at least.”

  “Sweet.” Chris started over. “Sing the lead. I’ll take the low harmony.”

  ELLIOT liked sitting out there by the pool, hanging with Chris who seemed to be everything that was low-key and relaxing. He didn’t make Elliot’s belly flutter, he didn’t even care if Elliot hit the right notes or totally screwed up the harmony. He was just… relaxing. And nice. He made it easy to forget for an hour or so how much pressure they were really under, what was riding on this show, this contract. How much he’d wanted to lean over earlier, right in the middle of that stupid embarrassing video diary, and kiss Danny until they had to stop for breath.

  Oh shit. If there was anything he shouldn’t think about, that would be it. Elliot made himself chill out, forced himself to take a deep breath and just freaking relax. He managed to do it. He sat back and just hung with Chris, sang and talked and just was until the house grew dark and quiet and the lights by the pool were the only ones lit as far as he could see.

  By the time Elliot got back up to his room, Danny was asleep sprawled flat out on his stomach, sure even in sleep of his body and his space and everything around him. Tanned limbs peeked out from under the thin summer blanket. He really was beautiful. Elliot took a long look, now that Danny was asleep, and he could look without anyone knowing. It was his cheekbones. They were the best part—at least when Danny was asleep and his laughing eyes weren’t open, his mouth wasn’t hovering at the edge of a big manic grin. Elliot loved that too. How Danny positively vibrated with energy. He couldn’t help making everyone else around him smile. He almost reached out, just to run his fingers down Danny’s arm and see if the sun-warmed skin felt as smooth and golden as it looked. But that would be crazy, right? Elliot never did stuff like that.

  Instead he forced himself to turn toward his dresser, where his sweats were draped across the top. He stripped quickly and silently and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth before sliding into bed. If he fell asleep facing Danny’s side of the room, well, there really wasn’t much he could do about that, was there?

  DANNY woke early. Not much after the sun rose. Except for rare mornings, he’d always been someone who got up right after dawn. Stayed up late too. Figured he’d sleep when he got old. Danny shuddered. He’d always hated the idea of getting old, was scared of the day when all the energy that constantly thrummed through his body finally drained away somewhere out in the atmosphere. He decided he had to get up. Lying in bed awake never led to settling, happy thoughts. Time to move. Danny shifted and winced when his bed made the most unholy loud noise possible. His roommate, who’d been a still lump under his covers, moved.

  “What time is it?” Elliot mumbled. His voice was growly with sleep, and damn if it didn’t send shivers down Danny’s back just like his singing voice did. Elliot’s voice was something from anoth
er world. Danny was sure of it.

  “It’s early, El. Go back to sleep.”

  “Why are you up?” Elliot’s head surfaced from under his blanket, and he peered across the room all rumpled and heavy-eyed before he reached up and scrubbed at his face.

  “Can’t sleep. I just….” Danny didn’t know how to explain it, how to tell Elliot about his need to do something, anything, nearly all the time.

  Elliot nodded, almost like Danny didn’t even have to say anything. He just got it. “I’ll get up too. We’ll find something for breakfast.” Elliot sat up and tossed his covers aside. He tottered a bit before he walked, half-naked, to his dresser and pulled a T-shirt on over his long, lightly muscled torso.

  “You could always go downstairs shirtless. I’m pretty sure the girls won’t mind,” Danny snickered.

  Elliot rolled his eyes. “Yeah, they’d hate it if you did too.” He slid his feet into a pair of flip-flops. “C’mon, let’s go see if we can rustle up some breakfast. I didn’t really like dinner last night. I’m hungry.”

  Danny slung an arm over Elliot’s shoulder, oddly relieved that the house would be quiet and asleep. That they would be alone. He didn’t examine his relief too closely.

  They took their breakfast—cereal and a banana for Elliot, waffles and breakfast sausage for Danny—out to one of the tables by the pool. They were close enough to the house that there were cameras around, which was still hard to get used to, but Danny tried to ignore them. The morning was still, and Danny didn’t usually like stillness, but for once he was content. Elliot reached over and snagged one of his breakfast sausages.

  “Hey!” Danny chuckled. “You could’ve gotten your own sausage.”

  “Yours tastes better.” Elliot blushed about a half second later when he realized what he’d said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  Wonder if they’ll let that comment get through editing? Danny laughed and reached across to ruffle his curls. “I won’t tell Katie you said that.”

  “Thanks.” He blushed even harder and stared intently at his cereal. Even Lucky Charms weren’t that interesting, and all Elliot had were Cheerios.

  Danny decided to save him. “What’s on the schedule today?” he asked. He knew already, but it was okay.

  “Volleyball with The Pixies, and I think we’re going to start some preliminary recording for ‘Fool for Love’.”

  Danny couldn’t wait to get into the studio with the guys. They’d been running through some material with Keller, actual new songs that would belong to them. As a group, they’d chosen “Fool for Love” as their favorite. The song was cool, kind of peppy, way less cheesy than Danny had assumed it would be. He actually almost liked the damn thing. With any luck it would be their first big single. Unreal. All of it.

  “Wish we could skip the volleyball part,” Danny muttered. Sports came easily to him, but he wasn’t really interested. “What are we competing for again?”

  “I think more video diary time. So the fans can get to know us better.” Elliot groaned. “I was such an idiot in there last night. That is so not my thing.”

  “You were cute. Charmingly shy and giggly.”

  “Thanks, man.” Elliot rolled his eyes.

  “Please. Like it matters. Just flutter your big ol’ lashes and flip your curls, and you’ll have them drooling after you in no time.”

  Elliot choked on his cereal for a good twenty seconds.

  “You don’t want the girls drooling after you?” Danny asked with a grin.

  “Not really. It’s awkward. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m awkward. I’ve never quite managed cool.”

  Danny hated that Elliot felt like he had to try. He reached over and brushed his fingers across Elliot’s wrist. “Just be yourself. I know we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, but I think you’re pretty amazing.”

  Elliot blushed again, but he smiled. Danny loved his smile. “We’ve got a few hours before the volleyball game. What do you say we escape and go down to the beach for a little while?”

  That was Danny’s favorite part of their house. It was just one street and one staircase away from the beach. His favorite place.

  Elliot’s smile turned to a grin. “Sure.”

  THE volleyball game was lame. Fun, Danny guessed, but as far as he was concerned a waste of time. Danny used the camera the best he could. He joked loudly for the camera, jumped around doing dumb tricks, leap-frogged over his bandmates’ shoulders, and acted like the biggest fool he knew how to be. They had to fight The Pixies for that extra video time; it turned out that one of the girls had played volleyball in college. But win they did, and the way Danny saw it, Static was more noticeable during the game anyway because of their dorky antics. So as much as he’d have rather been in the studio, it was a double win as far as he was concerned.

  The cameras followed them to the studio that afternoon, but they were guaranteed some alone time to actually work on things for real. They passed the folksinger—Chris, Elliot had reminded him—as he was coming back to the house from wherever he’d been that morning. Danny had a momentary twinge of jealousy that Elliot had clearly gotten to know the other guy. He pushed it down, though. Elliot was allowed to be friends with whomever he wanted. It was dumb to be possessive.

  It was a relief to be back at the studio, where they’d all gotten to know one another so well, where they’d gotten to be good friends. They settled into a sound booth with Keller and a bunch of new people Danny couldn’t keep track of and started laying down the vocals for “Fool for Love.” He loved it every time all five of them were singing. How everyone’s different tones blended together to make something that sounded uniquely like them. Like Static. Danny left the studio feeling great, joking with his boys, excited for whatever came next.

  The next few days were more of the same, recording clips for the show, getting to know people in the house, going back to the studio to work on more tracks for the album. It all kind of blended into a surreal sort of blur. Until the night the show aired for the first time. Then things started to feel an awful lot less surreal and a whole lot more immediate.

  “Hey, Danny a bunch of people are going to watch the show in the living room. You want to come down?” Elliot asked from the door where he’d just stuck his head into the room.

  Danny cringed. As much as he didn’t mind acting like a dork in front of the camera, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to watch himself acting like a dork. He supposed he should though. Wouldn’t want to be the only one cowering upstairs.

  He shrugged. “I guess so.”

  Elliot laughed. “Yeah, me neither, but I think we kind of have to watch. So at least we’ll know what everyone else is seeing.”

  Danny felt the secondhand embarrassment crawling up his neck. It wasn’t even secondhand, since it was his dumb butt on the screen. Maybe they cut a lot of his parts. He hoped. If not, there was going to be a whole bunch of him acting like… himself. Danny supposed there was no help for that.

  Their whole group was settled in the living room area, ready to watch. Tate, Reece, and Webb were in their own corner of the couch, squished in by Chelsea and Savannah, two of the girls from The Pixies. Elliot flopped down on the floor between Webb’s feet, and Danny sat next to him, ready for the worst.

  All in all, it wasn’t bad. Typical reality television fare with lots of music in the background and as much drama as they could drum up.

  “Wait a second, we weren’t arguing there!” Chelsea burst out at one point, when it looked like she and another girl from The Pixies were getting into it.

  “Creative editing,” Reece mumbled.

  “No kidding,” Chelsea said. She turned to Andrea. “I’ll let you know if I’m ever actually that pissed at you, okay?”

  Andrea chuckled. “Sure thing.”

  Danny hid his face a few times during the volleyball game. He really had been acting like a full-on derp. It got laughs from the other housemates though, so hopefully whoever was watching in their houses
felt the same. It was fun to watch everyone else get embarrassed when it was their turn in the video diary room. Of course Chris brought in his guitar and worked the shy charm, and the others did really well too. When it was Static’s turn, they all shared cringes. Especially when they realized that the camera had kept rolling on them when they were horsing around and tickling each other. Even Reece’s loud “Let’s go, Elli-bean” was captured. Elliot laughed and groaned and hid his face in Danny’s shoulder. It was official. The entire country was going to think they were idiots.

  Or maybe not.

  DANNY woke up the next morning to hundreds of followers on Twitter. So did the rest of the boys. People were tweeting them stuff like “Elli-bean is adorable!!”, “Danny makes us laugh!”, and “More Static puppy love <3.” Danny didn’t know what to think. He and his four new best friends… well, it looked like they were a hit.

  They spent the morning in rehearsals and the afternoon at the pool with The Pixies and Chris. Danny knew the fans liked to watch them play, so he instigated a few games in the pool for the benefit of the film crew. It didn’t take him long to forget that they were doing it for a camera, though. After just minutes, he was laughing because Webb got water up his nose, or because he’d managed to flip Elliot over his shoulder and make him squeal. By the time they crawled up onto the lawn chairs, they were exhausted. Danny looked over and noticed Reece messing with his phone and snickering.

  “What are you doing?” he asked quietly.

  “Shhh. Wait.” Reece grinned.

  A moment later, Tate’s phone pinged. Tate picked it up and burst out laughing. He poked Webb, who dragged his own phone out from under his T-shirt where it sat on the pool deck. Danny had to see what they were up to. He nearly spit out his drink when he saw what they’d been talking about.