Dreamspinner Press Year Seven Greatest Hits Page 7

  Reece Beaufort @SouthernBoyReece

  @TateRyan_RL *Whistle* Nice speedo, dude.

  Tate Ryan @TateRyan_RL

  @SouthernBoyReece You like it. Don’t pretend ;)

  Reece Beaufort @SouthernBoyReece

  @TateRyan_RL Oh, I won’t pretend. They should have you Speedo modeling. You have a great package.

  Tate Ryan @TateRyan_RL

  @SouthernBoyReece You’ve been staring at my package?! #awkward

  Reece Beaufort @SouthernBoyReece

  @TateRyan_RL LOL. Not THAT package. Your overall package. But now that you mention it….

  Webber Jackson @TheWebbinator

  @TateRyan_RL @SouthernBoyReece Jeez you two. Just kiss already.

  Reece Beaufort @SouthernBoyReece

  @TheWebbinator Who’s saying we haven’t? ;)

  Oh guys….

  Danny laughed. There was no way he wasn’t getting involved in this one. It was awesome.

  Danny Bright @DannyBoy94

  WTH. Why do I always get left out of the lovin’? I’m sitting right here. #rejected @TateRyan_RL @SouthernBoyReece @TheWebbinator

  Only seconds later, his phone pinged.

  Elliot Price @EPriceisRight

  @DannyBoy94 What? I don’t count? Ouch. And to think I was saving you my big pickle for later….

  This just got so much better….

  Danny Bright @DannyBoy94

  @EPriceisRight Shhhhh… not till tonight Elli-bean! Don’t tell everyone our secrets ;)

  Danny nearly blushed at his own answer, but the fans obviously loved it. All four of them got barraged with tweets about their jokes. Within hours, trends like #RateisHot #MmmmPickles and #TateSpeedoPicsPlease started showing up on his screen.

  “What’s ‘Rate’?” Tate asked, wandering into the main living room in the house later that night and staring at his phone.

  It took Danny a second to figure it out, but when he did he burst out laughing. “It’s you and Reece, dude. You’ve officially been shipped.”

  “Shipped?” Tate cocked his head to the side. “What’s that?”

  Reece snorted, and Webb just shook his head. “Like Brangelina? TomKat?” Reece said. “Just, well,” he laughed, “you and me.”

  “Wait… together?” Tate turned red. “Oh no. Do those girls think we’re serious?”

  “Of course not,” Webb answered. “It’s all just fun. And even if they did, who cares? It’ll keep ’em watching and waiting for something to happen.”

  “I’d better text Felicia.” Tate sank onto the arm of the couch and started tapping frantically on his phone. His face turned even redder when it beeped about thirty seconds later.

  Reece chuckled. “Does she hate me?”

  “No,” Tate mumbled.

  “What did she say?” Reece wandered over to look at Tate’s phone.

  “Nothing.” Tate tried to stick his phone in his pocket.

  “Oh hell no. That is not a ‘nothing’ face. Give it here.” Reece lunged for Tate’s phone, and after a few minutes of scrabbling, he managed to get it out of his hands. When he read the text, Reece shouted out a laugh and flopped back on the couch.

  “What did Felicia say?” Webb asked, laughing.

  “She said she’s ‘Team Rate’. She wants to see us kiss!” Reece lunged for Tate and smothered his face in jokey kisses. Tate laughed, squealed, and blushed, pushing at Reece until he let up.

  “You’re a dumbass,” Tate said, still laughing.

  “You still love me,” Reece said. He wrapped his arms around Tate’s neck in a choking hug.

  Tate detangled himself. “’Course I do.”

  Danny shook his head at his bandmates and looked back down at his laptop. It seemed like every time he refreshed, his follower count had jumped up by hundreds. He was sure he’d get tired of looking eventually, but he just couldn’t believe how many people out there were watching him and his new best friends act like morons with each other. It was just unbelievable. What had started at a few hundred right after the episode had gone up to a thousand, two thousand…. He had no idea where they’d all come from. Danny had tons of mentions in his feed. People joking with him about swimsuits and asking him to get kissing pics of Tate and Reece, comments about pickle sizes that made even him blush, which wasn’t easy. He wondered how long it would be before the pickle joke rode out. In retrospect it probably wasn’t the best thing he could’ve said. He had to reply to some of the tweets though. Didn’t want people to think he was ignoring them. He picked a few that weren’t quite as… blatant as some of the others.

  StaticFan#1 @Rateisgreat

  @DannyBoy94 You should come visit me. I’m from the pickle capital of the south. We have lots of samples ;)

  Danny Bright @DannyBoy94

  @Rateisgreat Haha!! I would but I’m very selective about my pickles. Right @EPriceisRight and @TheWebbinator?

  It didn’t take long before he heard Elliot’s laugh ringing from upstairs. His computer pinged.

  Elliot Price @EPriceisRight

  @DannyBoy94 @Rateisgreat Yes. He’s VERY Selective ;) Hold on. I’ll be downstairs in a minute….

  “HOW many followers are you up to now?” Danny asked a few days later when he came into the sitting room where Elliot was messing around on his laptop during a break from filming.

  They’d had to do an obstacle course against the team of OCD and Chris Collins earlier, which was fine for a few of them. Of course, Elliot had tripped and landed on his face in the sandpit, though. Poor baby. And Webb? Danny chuckled to himself. It was a good thing Webb had a gorgeous voice and a pretty face. Sports weren’t his thing.

  “Not sure how many I’m up to. I’d have to check. It was like ten thousand last time I looked. Crazy huh?”

  “I can’t believe that many people care about what we have to say.”

  Elliot clicked on his Twitter icon and looked at his screen to check how many followers he had.

  “Oh my God.” Elliot’s eyes flew wide open. He put his face in one hand and laughed. The other hand shot out to cover as much of his laptop’s screen as possible.

  “What is it this time?” Danny leaned over and tried to push Elliot’s hand off the screen. It took a bit of a battle, but he finally succeeded.

  #DannylikesElliotsPickle was trending. Nationally. How was it even possible that so many people were paying attention to their dumb jokes?

  “Danny likes Elliot’s pickle. Seriously?” Elliot snorted. “That’s so embarrassing! Where do they come up with these things? I seriously hope my parents aren’t looking at this stuff.”

  Danny laughed too and propped his chin on the top of Elliot’s head. Elliot’s hair smelled good, fresh and clean and like Elliot.

  “It’s not like we don’t give them material to work with. And I doubt your parents are on Twitter. If so, they have to know it’s a joke.”

  He slung his arms over Elliot’s shoulders and typed out a fast tweet about Elliot’s pickle being the sweetest.

  “Hey! You did that with my account!”

  Danny chuckled. “Oops.”

  Elliot typed, “Dannnnyyyy. Get off my computer!” before he shut it down. “This is going to get us in trouble. I swear.”

  “Nah,” Danny said. “The fans love it. It’s funny.”

  An uneasy little flip in Danny’s stomach told him there might be people who were bothered by it. Katie for one. Sure, ninety-nine percent of it was joking. Well, all of it really. But there was still a part of him that got a little giddy when one of the silly flirtatious tweets directed at him came from Elliot. There was no way his girlfriend could know that. At least Danny didn’t think he’d been that obvious. But still. He figured he’d better talk to her about it. Not the Elliot thing, God no, not that, but the fans. That he didn’t mean it with them. Or the other boys. Or Elliot. He didn’t mean it when he flirted with Elliot either. Right?

  “Hey, I’m going to go make a phone call. You okay for a while, or are you going to get yours
elf into trouble?” He squeezed Elliot’s shoulder.

  Elliot tipped his head backward. “I think I can hold myself together for a little while. Better not be a long phone call though. You never know what I’m capable of if left untended.”

  “Smartass.”

  Elliot grinned at him upside down. Danny reached out and cupped his face and drew his fingers across Elliot’s cheek slowly as he turned toward the stairs.

  “HI, HON.” Katie’s voice sounded both familiar and like it came from another planet. Another lifetime.

  “Hey, babe.” Danny felt guilty. He’d had to remind himself to call her ever since he’d met the boys. Even then, it wasn’t like he really wanted to. At least he could use the excuse that they weren’t supposed to phone out much without the producers’ permission. He tried to pull up that feeling he used to have, when every time something happened his first thought was to tell Katie. Now his first thought was to tell… Elliot.

  “How are you doing? I saw the first couple of episodes finally.” She giggled. “It was weird to see you on TV, but you guys were adorable. Looks like you’re having fun.” He thought he might have heard a hint of wistfulness in her voice, but Danny couldn’t be sure. “I like the sweet, shy one. With the big curls. What’s his name?”

  Danny nearly choked. “That’s Elliot,” he finally forced out. Talk about awkward.

  Katie giggled. “Yeah. He’s the one you’re closest to, right? Well, if my hot boyfriend wasn’t in the group, I’d definitely have a crush on Elliot.”

  Danny was pretty much in hell. “I think everyone has a little bit of a crush on Elliot,” he said casually. He had to change the subject. Immediately. “Listen, babe. You’re not taking all the flirty stuff seriously, are you? Like on Twitter and whatever. It’s all just part of the game, you know. We have to joke with the fans and give them a good show.”

  “I know that. It’s funny. Of course I’m not taking any of it seriously.”

  “Good. Just making sure.”

  There was silence on the line. It stretched uncomfortably for long seconds. Danny didn’t know what to say.

  “Hey, so I gotta go. I’m going to meet the girls for a movie later, and I have to get ready,” Katie finally said.

  He felt awful for being relieved. But he was. “Sure, babe. Have fun. Tell everyone I said hi.”

  “I will. Love you.”

  “Love you too.” For the first time, it was hard to say. But Danny did love her. Really he did. They’d been together for years, and everything had always been so comfortable between them. He wished he could say he was in love with Katie. He might have said it before.

  But things were different. Danny was different.

  IT DIDN’T take long for Danny to realize that he couldn’t stay away from Elliot. He didn’t even want to, not really. Even if he had, it was impossible. It was like Elliot’s hair was a magnet, his shoulders and hands and waist too. They drew Danny’s fingers to the point where he sometimes wasn’t even aware that he’d been touching until he caught himself thinking about how soft Elliot’s hair was, or that he liked the springy muscles in Elliot’s shoulders when he rubbed them. Touching Elliot was necessary, like water and air and food. Involuntary like that too. His fingers sought out the connection. Always. Elliot’s seemed to as well; Danny’s shoulders and arms and hair and hands had become an extension of his own. It was comfortable, right for them. He barely even thought about it.

  The other boys were the same… to a point. They’d become comfortable with touching and cuddling and they loved their hugs, especially Reece. But, actually no, it wasn’t the same. Reece and Tate didn’t hold hands surreptitiously behind their backs; Tate and Webb didn’t lean closer, closer, even closer still when there was plenty of room for everyone to stand on their own. But he and Elliot did. Always. Danny had to remind himself to touch the others, to hug and cuddle on Reece and Tate and Webb. Because at least to him, in his mind, it was so damn obvious how much he wanted to be near Elliot. How his body didn’t feel right if Elliot’s wasn’t in close orbit.

  Danny knew his feelings weren’t platonic. Far from it. He wasn’t a moron. But he had to control it. Elliot was his friend. His closest friend. They’d stayed up for hours talking and laughing in their room, getting to know each other. He’d never found anyone he got along with better. Yes. Elliot was his friend. Friend. Katie was his girlfriend. End of story. It would be best for everyone involved if Danny reminded himself of that on a daily basis.

  “HEY, El?” Danny’s voice was soft in the darkness of their room.

  Elliot rolled over so he was facing Danny’s bed. He’d been half asleep, but Danny’s voice opened his eyes. Elliot loved Danny’s voice. Kinda scratchy, soft, already so familiar. “Yeah?”

  “This is crazy, isn’t it?”

  Of course it was. The show, the record deal, it was all kind of crazy. Some days he forgot in the bustle of everything they had to do, but then reality would hit out of the blue, and he’d be bowled over once again.

  “Of course,” he said. “I can’t believe we’re actually recording a freaking album. We already have fans. Could you have ever imagined having fans before?”

  “Well, yeah… but that’s not what I meant.”

  “What did you mean?”

  “I meant this.” Elliot could barely see Danny’s hand wave in the darkness, gesturing between the two of them. “You and me. Man, this is going to sound cheesy as shit, but…. It seems impossible to believe we didn’t know each other two months ago. You’re already, like, my best friend. The thought of not knowing you is so weird. Like it was another life. You know what I mean?”

  Elliot did know. He couldn’t imagine his days not filled with Danny’s brash laugh, his huge smile, the constancy of his familiar touch. Not anymore at least. Danny had become a part of him so quickly. Webb, Tate, and Reece had too, all in their own ways, but it wasn’t quite the same.

  “I know. It’s… I don’t know. Like nobody really got me before you.” Elliot laughed. “See? I can be cheesy too. It’s just, like, we were meant to be friends or something. I think we were meant to meet.”

  Danny stood from his bed and shuffled over to sit on the edge of Elliot’s bed. Elliot scooted in closer to the wall to give him room.

  “I think we were too,” Danny said quietly. He reached over to thread his fingers into Elliot’s hair. He’d done it so many times by then it felt like second nature to have his hand there. Elliot nudged catlike at Danny’s hand with his head so he’d know not to stop. Danny chuckled softly, but kept petting. “I mean, I love the guys to death. They’re cool as hell. It’s just different with us.”

  Elliot turned his head to look up at Danny. He could see his face in the darkness, barely, those high cheekbones and a hint of a fond smile. Elliot smiled in return and covered Danny’s free hand with his own. Maybe in another friendship that would seem weird. For them, that was just the way they were. As confusing as it was at times, Elliot loved it.

  “Hey, scoot over a little more,” Danny said. “I’m cold.”

  Elliot didn’t even think about how it was anything but cold in the room, didn’t think about how it was odd ’cause they were just platonic friends, right? He simply moved without question. Next thing he knew, Danny was cuddled up under his covers with him, sharing his pillow. Elliot felt the warmth from his body, could almost feel his skin, would’ve been able to feel his skin if he just moved a few inches… but he didn’t. It wouldn’t be right. Danny trusted him.

  “Night, El,” Danny whispered.

  “Night, Danny.”

  Danny reached up and ruffled his hair again. Then he kissed Elliot on the forehead. It took Elliot a long, long time to fall asleep.

  IS LOOOOVE IN THE AIR AT BAND CAMP?

  A Candy Scoop Exclusive!

  Candy Scoop here again and our offices are buzzing with talk of bromances on this season’s newest show Band Camp! We feel a little bad for THE PIXIES with all the manlove in that house. Just kid
ding. We’re jealous if you want to know the truth. Take pictures girls!

  With all this talk of bromance, who are the love matches, you ask?

  WEBB from STATIC and JEFF from OCD have bonded over their shared love of Nirvana and moody brooding glares. Maybe they made time for some smooching as well (right boys)?

  Of course there’s the early favorite of REECE and TATE from STATIC, dubbed “Rate.” Deeeee-Lish!! Although we might be getting some three-way love action because lately crooner CHRIS COLLINS has gotten cozy with our five STATIC cuties. Candy Scoop is quite alright with that!

  Last but not least is the dark horse “Delly.” ELLIOT and DANNY aren’t the first STATIC bromance, but they might be the most adorable. Sorry Rate, we still love you!

  By the way we’d love to know what goes on up in the STATIC rooms at night because these boys are all sooo close and cuddly. Gentlemen, you have the same assignment as THE PIXIES. Pictures!

  Tune into Band Camp Tuesdays at nine for all the action….

  —CS

  IT WAS around nine at night when Reece stuck his head into Elliot and Danny’s room. Danny had been reading, and Elliot was messing around on his laptop. “Hey, you two want to watch Saw? Everyone’s going to meet in the big room in ten minutes.”

  Elliot cringed. He’d never been a fan of horror flicks. “Saw?”

  “Yeah, we’ll be there,” Danny answered.

  “Cool.” Reece retreated back through the bathroom into the room he shared with Tate and Webb.

  “I don’t like scary movies. I think I’m just going to stay up here.” Elliot stuck his feet under his blanket and got ready for a long boring night.

  Danny hopped up from his bed and skipped over. He took Elliot’s laptop from him and closed it before grabbing Elliot’s arm and dragging him out of bed. Elliot’s feet got caught in his blanket and he nearly fell. “Hey!” he protested.