Catch My Breath (27 page)

“Yeah.” Elliot’s slow morning smile grew even wider. “I want more already, I’m just kinda sore.”

Danny chuckled. “Me too.” He didn’t regret it though. And as soon as his body was ready….

E
VERYONE
looked pretty rough at the breakfast table. Rough, but happy. Even after too much champagne and hardly any sleep, not a single one of them could keep the smiles from their faces. Still reeling from a number-one single and love for his boys and a whole different kind of love for Elliot, Danny shook his head, disbelieving. Elliot’s hand crept into his lap, and he twined their fingers together. Danny understood. They’d always had to touch, always wanted to be as close to each other as possible, but after the night they’d just had, after waking up in each other’s arms full of so much love Danny didn’t know how he could hold it in, well, things had changed. Again.

“Guys?” Danny said quietly.

“What’s up?” Reece asked around a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

“Elliot and I… well, it’s getting harder to hide what we are. What would you think about us not really trying to hide it anymore?”

Reece shrugged. “I don’t care. You guys are like the masters of being obvious anyway.”

“Yeah,” Tate agreed. “Half the fans already think you’re together. Might as well not worry about it.”

Elliot squeezed Danny’s hand. “I don’t think we need to make any big announcements, but maybe if anyone ever point-blank asks, we just don’t lie?” he said quietly. Everyone looked at Webb. He was the only one who hadn’t spoken.

“What?” Webb looked up from his breakfast. “You think I care? Just don’t screw with the band’s vibe and I’m cool.”

“We would never….” Danny and Elliot had promised that before, and they’d never broken that promise. Danny was more than willing to promise it again.

“Then we’re all good. Tate’s right. Anyone who
doesn’t
see what’s happening between you two is blind anyway.” He rolled his eyes. “Or deaf.”

Danny cringed. “Really?”

“
Yes
.” Reece snorted. “Jesus. Next time we book a hotel there needs to be soundproof rooms. I swear.”

Danny didn’t get embarrassed often, but that was enough to do it. His cheeks went all hot at the idea the other three had heard him and Elliot. Especially the night before. Neither one of them had been quiet.

“Sorry,” Elliot mumbled on a giggle.

Tate reached over and popped a light punch on Elliot’s shoulder. “Hey, at least we know both of our bros have skills,” he joked.

Oh my God.
Danny was officially dead from embarrassment.

I
T
FELT
good to be home. Danny and Elliot dragged their bags into the apartment they’d barely had a chance to settle into and collapsed on to the bed fully clothed. They were both exhausted. Danny could barely keep his eyes open, and Elliot had been drooping all day. The whole band needed a break. They weren’t going to get much of one.

“This is nice,” Elliot murmured. He turned on his side and wound his arm around Danny’s waist. “I swear I’m not leaving this bed until our meeting with Sasha on Monday.”

“We’re going over to your parents’ house for dinner tomorrow.” Danny’d been looking forward to seeing Elliot’s mom, and he knew Elliot missed her. He hadn’t missed his parents much and didn’t have any plans to see them. He had traded a few texts with Katie, though. A small part of Danny missed her, at least the friendship part. He wondered if they were ever going to be friends again.

Elliot groaned. “Can’t my parents come here?”

“El. It’s your mom. She hasn’t seen you in over a month.”

“I know. I’m a jerk.” He dropped a tired kiss on Danny’s mouth. “I’m just tired. I’m sure I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

Dinner with Elliot’s parents was nice, comfortable, easy. The meeting with Sasha on Monday was anything but.

“’M
ORNING
, gentlemen.” Sasha gestured at the chairs they’d sat in before, on the day he found them, the day they were signed as a group. Danny hated those chairs. He sat anyway. “First of all, congratulations again. ‘Fool for Love’ is doing far better than we’d hoped. I’m proud of you.”

They all thanked him quietly. Sasha was smiling, but he wasn’t as happy as he should have been. At least Danny didn’t think so.

“It’s time to start gearing up. The single was a test—a successful one. Now it’s time to get serious. We’ll need to deal with image, do some intensive media training, start talking about a tour once the album is dropped….”

Danny’s head spun thinking about how much more there could be. The single had seemed huge already, but to think of the album, a potential tour? He couldn’t even imagine. The others were smiling nervously at each other.

“But I have a question before we start all that. I wanted to talk to you privately before we bring in the management team. I need to know what I’m dealing with.”

“What do you mean?” Tate asked. His brows drew together.

“This question is for Danny and Elliot.”
Oh.
“I think you know what I’m about to ask.”

“I think so too.” Danny raked his hand through his hair. Not good.

“There are quite a few fans who’ve noticed something between you two,” Sasha said. He looked at Danny and Elliot speculatively. “I’m a little concerned about it.”

“We’re all close,” Reece said defensively. “The fans love it. They love when we joke about our little bromances.”

Sasha raised his eyebrows. “And that’s what we have here between Elliot and Danny?”

Tate, Webb, and Reece all looked around and mumbled. None of them looked like they wanted to answer the question.

Not going to lie anymore.
“No, it’s not.” Danny’s voice barely trembled, which was amazing. He was terrified. Danny wasn’t stupid. Sure, lots of their fans saw it; sure he and Elliot were practically public with their feelings. But Sasha with the dollar signs in his eyes when he looked at Elliot wasn’t going to like it.

“What exactly is going on?” Sasha asked. “I need the truth.”

Elliot, sweet, shy Elliot, sat up straight and reached for Danny’s hand. He twined their fingers together rebelliously and looked right at Sasha. “Danny and I are together.”

Sasha shook his head.

“Well, then we have a big problem.”

S
TATIC
was called into another conference room the next afternoon. There was a large round table filled with faces, some familiar, some not. Rebecca looked at them, sympathy in her eyes. So did Peter. Sasha’s face was harder to read.

“Have a seat, guys. We have lots of work to do.”

Sasha’s assistant passed out thick packets to each of the guys at the table. “What’s this?” Reece asked, thumbing his packet open.

“It’s called an appearance clause. I’m sure you noticed on your original contract that we reserved the option to add one of these if needed.”

“An appearance clause?” Webb asked. His eyebrows flew together as he scanned the first page.

“Yep. Sometimes it’s necessary to outline exactly how an artist or artists behave in public scenarios to maintain an optimal image for the fans.”

A chill settled in the pit of Danny’s stomach. “What do you mean?”

“We’ll go over this a section at a time so you all have a clear understanding, okay?” Rebecca said quietly. Peter nodded. The other three new faces at the table said nothing, just stared at the boys accusingly. Danny had a good idea why.

“Let’s get started,” Sasha said. “First of all, this is your management team. You boys know Peter and Rebecca from White Star. They’ll work the closest with you when you go on tour, schedule your appearances, run your publicity. Also, we’ll have Leslie—she’s an intern. She’ll help Rebecca with your online presence. Mark and Katrina are product liaisons. A lot of companies are going to want a piece of Static very soon.” Sasha gestured. “These people are going to make you boys very successful. But we’re going to need some help from you.”

The others nodded warily. Danny just waited—he wasn’t stupid. He knew whatever was going to be coming had to do with him and Elliot, and it wasn’t going to be good news.

Mark, one of their new team members, spoke. “You boys are a product—” Reece went to protest, but Mark held up his hand. “Yes, I know you’re a musician, but I’m sure you like selling singles and when the time comes albums too.”

None of them could argue with that point.

“With successful sales come things like product endorsements, tours, awards.
Real
money. It’s our job to make you as appealing as possible as that product, as a band, so the girls will keep buying your music.”

“No drinking?” Reece had been flipping through the pages of their contract. His face slid into outrage. “We’re not children.”

“More like limit public displays of drunkenness. Read the rest of it,” Peter answered. He looked sorry, like he hated for the boys to have to deal with this. They hadn’t been with Peter long, only about two months, but he was a good guy. Danny didn’t want to hate that Peter was on the other side of the table, but it felt like the others were the enemy, facing them down. It felt like they were drowning.

“We need you guys to be clean, not Disney clean because that’s not who you are. You can be cheeky, irreverent, but still be the boys that moms want their teenage girls to like. Any public misbehavior is going to cause problems, drugs, sloppy drinking, pretty much anything with underaged girls. Outside of sanctioned events stay away from any of them you’re not related to.”

“So we just have to look like good guys,” Danny said. “That’s fine. We
are
good guys. None of us are like huge partiers or anything, and we're not gonna hit on little girls.”

“Well, there’s more to it.”

Here we go….

“To appeal to the girls, we need you to seem
available
to the girls—even if you're not. I’m sure you remember that discussion. Tate, you’ve had a girlfriend the whole time. The fans actually seem to like when you talk about—?”

“Felicia,” Tate said.

“Yes. Felicia. Obviously, that situation is going to stay the way it is… but the rest of you need to remain publicly single, appear available to the fans.” Sasha shot a searching look at Danny and Elliot. “Except you two. One of you needs a very visible girlfriend.
Now
.”

Elliot shot up in his seat. “No!”

“El,” Danny said quietly. He didn’t know how he was going to get them out of this whole thing, but he would. He had to.

“Sales would tank if girls knew that two of the boys they dream about at night are going to bed with each other. It can’t happen that way.”

“This isn’t the fifties,” Webb argued “They’re not going to care. Our fans like us for being who we are.”

“Don’t be so naive.” Sasha sat coolly in his chair. “You’re selling a fantasy, an image, just like makeup companies, just like clothing companies, like every other celebrity on the planet. Sure, if your single was a mediocre performer, if you were destined to do small shows in unimportant venues, then it wouldn’t matter. But we see major potential in you. We want you to realize it.”

“And part of realizing it is to hide who we are?” Elliot sounded outraged.

“To make yourself as appealing to the record-buying public as possible.”

“But if one of us has a girlfriend, he’s not single. Isn’t that just as bad as people thinking we’re together?” Elliot asked.

“No,” Sasha said. “If a boy has a girlfriend, they can always break up. The illusion of possibility is still intact. You see the difference?”

Danny knew they weren’t going to win. It was in their contract. He’d been around big business people long enough to know that breach of contract wasn’t anything to screw around with. “I’ll do it. I’m sure you want to keep Elliot single. This girl will know it’s for publicity, right?”

“Danny, no!”

Danny reached over and put his hand on Elliot’s thigh. He shot him a look.
Later.

“You don’t have to do this, dude,” Reece muttered. “There’s gotta be another way.”

“Yes, Danny. It’ll be for
publicity
purposes only, and she’ll be fully aware of that, although it’s best if that’s as far as her knowledge of the situation goes.” Sasha raised his eyebrows. Danny got it. Containment. Hide the gay. “Go on a few dates, get photographed at some events. It’ll suit our purposes here, and it’ll help her as well.”

“You already have someone picked out?” Elliot glared stubbornly at Sasha. Gone was the shy, sweet guy they all knew.

“We’ve contacted Chelsea Preston.”

“Chelsea? From The Pixies?” Danny nearly sighed with relief. That was at least better than some stranger. It was going to be awkward to explain how their romance bloomed out of seeming thin air, though. “But we’re just friends, and I haven’t been seen with her since the last day of filming.”

“That’s easy to fix,” Rebecca said quietly. “A few well-placed rumors and you two have been dating quietly for weeks. Months even.” She obviously didn’t like it any more than the rest of them, but she fell into place. It was her job to do what the label needed her to do.

“I can help with that as well.” Leslie, who was going to engineer their “online presence,” spoke up. “I’ll need login information for all of your social networking sites. Mainly for promotion but to deal with this as well as any other publicity.”

“Are you serious?” Tate asked. He rolled his eyes.

The rest of the meeting didn’t go any better than the beginning. Rebecca and Leslie planned how “Chelsea and Danny the couple” would be launched. They talked to the rest of the boys about flirting with fans and giving them a good show, keeping it clean to a point but still making it fun. After the high of their number-one hit, it felt like getting slammed to the ground, crashing into hard cement, and crumbling into smithereens. It wasn’t just him and Elliot, it was everything. Static had become big business overnight—everything about Static had to be planned and manicured to sell them to the largest possible audience. Generic. Cold. Nothing was going to be as it was during those first heady months on the show when long hours in the recording studio and acting silly for the cameras were the worst things they had to deal with. Danny wasn’t sure if he was ready for the real world of the music business, but it was way too late to go back.