Catch My Breath (45 page)

Danny was quiet all the way to the car. He unlocked it, and they slid in without a word. “I guess it could’ve been a lot worse.”

Still, it all felt so final. And so fast.

T
WENTY
minutes later, they trailed into their house, still shell-shocked but somehow, well, not shocked at the same time. They’d talked about it a little on the way home, in short sentences and mumbled words. Neither of them had expected anything better from Sasha. They’d hoped but not expected. At least he wasn’t going to ruin the careers of the other three guys as well.

“Now what?” Danny asked. He flopped onto his side of the bed. Elliot did the same and rolled over to curl his body around Danny’s.

“I don’t know. College maybe? We should probably find a cheaper place.”

Danny gave Elliot a small smile. “I meant what now, like right now.”

“Oh.” Elliot smiled. “We’ve gotta tell the guys for sure. I don’t want them to hear it in a meeting. It has to come from us.”

“They’re not gonna like it.”

Elliot agreed. “I know. That’s part of the reason we have to prepare them. I don’t want Reece’s first reaction to come in some boardroom filled with suits. It won’t be pretty.”

“Do you honestly think Sasha can do this? Like, legally?”

“Do you honestly want to find out?”

Sasha had made it very clear. They were easily replaceable. It had been done in pop groups lots of times. After some initial confusion, nobody ever seemed to mind, or even remember, he’d said. Elliot wasn’t so sure he was right. He knew of three people who would disagree.

“Wanna get this over with? Call the boys?” he asked Danny.

“
No
. But yes. They deserve to know.”

“A
RE
you fucking kidding me?” was Reece’s reaction, shouted at the top of his lungs into the phone the second he heard the news. “I’m getting in the car. Don’t leave your house.”

Tate and Webb didn’t react any better. Soon there were three cars headed their way, three enraged bandmates, and a potential mess brewing even worse than the one they’d just left.

The three of them stomped in, ready to take on whatever dragons they needed to in defense of Danny and Elliot. Fierce hugs did a lot to make Elliot feel better. So did the fact that their bandmates couldn’t see doing any of this without them.

“I’m gonna call Sasha,” Tate growled. “This is fucked and it’s
stupid
. How can he not see that?”

“Yeah, how’s he planning on spinning this? You two come out and suddenly you’re not in the band anymore? That timing is just a bit too convenient. Even he has to see that.”

“He did.” Elliot sighed. “Both of us ‘made the choice to quit’ because the pressure and the attention from the public had gotten too intense after our little scene. That’s what he’s gonna say.”

“Does anyone else know?”

Elliot shook his head. “Not yet. I know he’s going to run some blind auditions to replace us, but this is going to stay quiet until he has everything set up. We weren’t even supposed to tell you guys.”

“Weren’t supposed to tell us? Is he fucking out of his mind? You’re our best friends. We were supposed to be in the studio tomorrow. What did he think was gonna happen when you two didn’t show up?”

Danny snorted. “Freak food poisoning?”

“This isn’t funny, Danny,” Tate admonished. “Sasha has to be stopped.”

“Men like him are never stopped,” Danny said quietly. “All you can hope for is to stay out of their line of fire until you’re a safe distance away from them. El and I are lucky, really. He promised not to press charges if we walked away quietly.”

“Press fucking charges? He just fired you because you’re gay. That’s not even, like, legal, is it?”

“No. He fired us because we were in breach of contract. And because of that contract, he can do whatever he wants. Guys, don’t fight this. I don’t want you to get in trouble too.”

Tate’s jaw tightened mutinously. Webb looked at the floor. Reece, for once, was silent.

“This is so fucked up,” Tate finally whispered.

Danny Bright @DannyBoy94

Hey @EPriceisRight !! Breakfast is ready sleepy head. Get up!

Elliot Price @EPriceisRight

@DannyBoy94 I’m not getting up until I smell coffee. Please <3

Danny Bright @DannyBoy94

@EPriceisRight Course, love. I’ll put on the coffee right now.

Alyssa Jones @ILuvStatic

@Dellyisreallove @Rateisgreat Eeeeekkk!! They’re so cute and romantic. I missed #Delly sooooo much.

Cara D @Dellyisreallove

@ILuvStatic @Rateisgreat Guyyyssss!!! <3 I can’t even with the cute! He called him LOVE. #Delly

StaticFan#1 @Rateisgreat

@Dellyisreallove @ILuvStatic They’re so cute!! I’m 100% dead over here. I can’t wait till they get to walk their first red carpet together!

D
ANNY
and Elliot tried to think about moving on. There were some positives. They still had each other. The boys still had Static. There were a lot of scary negatives too. The fans weren’t going to like it, and a lot of blame was about to come down on both of their shoulders. While they still could, they tried to make the girls who’d always supported them happy.

Sasha held individual auditions and picked some possible candidates for Danny and Elliot’s replacements. Then he held a few group auditions to test the boys out with Reece, Tate, and Webb. At least he tried to.

“We wouldn’t fucking sing,” Reece crowed later that night when he and the others had gathered at Danny and Elliot’s house again. Danny and Elliot had been looking at smaller places, ones closer to UCLA or maybe even UCSD, even though they talked about not wanting to leave the guys and move out of LA.

“Wait. What?” Danny was horrified, but part of him wanted to laugh. Of course they wouldn’t. “Guys, we told you not to screw with your own careers. Go along with Sasha, and you could have another successful album, another tour. You could have it all.”

“You can’t be serious,” Webb muttered. “Remember one for all, all for one? Was that bullshit?”

“Of course not,” Elliot said. “Danny and I are still here for you. We’re still with you. We always will be. But you can’t beat Sasha. He’s got too much power.”

“We couldn’t beat him in court, but we can beat him,” Tate said quietly. “He didn’t shut Static down completely because he has too much money sunk into the second album, right? Promotion has been started, production is pretty much complete. Hell, it comes out in, what, like three weeks? That money is our ammunition. I don’t know what would have to happen before he’d cut his losses right before the album drops and walk away. It would have to be huge.”

“No singers is pretty huge.”

“But what if he had five singers again?” Webb asked with his eyebrows raised. “We made it very clear what our wishes were.”

“
Guys
. He’s not going to bring us back. Can you imagine the kind of damage control he’d have to do on our images? That whole night would have to be erased somehow. I don’t think that’s even possible.”

“Are there any more auditions?” Danny asked.

“Yeah. He has two more guys coming in tomorrow. He slapped the ones today with a confidentiality agreement the size of my last birthday cake.” Webb snorted. “I don’t know what he thinks will be any different tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow you’ll
sing
. You’ll get in that room with the new guys and you’ll sing. El and I never wanted to be the ones responsible for your careers going down the drain. Do it for us.”

“No,” Tate said. Sensible Tate, who’d worried from the beginning. His line had apparently been crossed. “We’ll do it with you or not at all. Sasha can’t put Static on tour with five new members. His choice will be to pull the whole thing or bring you back.”

“Or sue the hell out of you guys. C’mon, don’t do this.”

Elliot smiled. “I have to admit as crazy as it is, I love you for supporting us.”

“Always. It’s not just that, though. Static isn’t Static without you two—not for us, and it wouldn’t be for the fans either. We’re gonna get you back. Watch.”

“W
HAT
the hell did you guys
do
?” Elliot hissed. “Why are we here?”

He and Danny had been called down to Blue Horizon early that morning. When they got there, it was to find three smug-looking faces waiting for them in the main hallway.

“What do you think we did? We got you back just like we said we would.”

“Gentlemen.” An assistant led them into one of the conference rooms housed in the main floor at the record label. “Mr. Pulaski will be with you in a moment.”

“Seriously,” Elliot said as soon as the door closed. “What did you do?”

Tate shrugged and smiled. “Nothing really. We sang with the new guys.”

“And Sasha saw the tape of the audition and realized he doesn’t have shit without you two.” Reece chuckled. “He’s not happy about it, I’ll tell you that much.”

Seriously?

Sasha strode into the office a few minutes later. He didn’t bother to sit. “Right about now, I’d like to scrap this whole fucking project and never see any of you again,” he growled. “You’ve caused me more trouble than all my other artists combined. If it weren’t for the projected numbers coming in for your second album I might have done it already.”

“They’re good?” Tate asked.

“Astronomical good. The kind of good I just can’t walk away from.”

“What does that have to do with Elliot and I?” Danny asked.

Sasha leaned forward and put his hands on the desk. “As much as it pains me to say this, Static isn’t Static without the five original members. It won’t sell as well, it won’t photograph as well, and I highly doubt the tour we’re already planning will come close to selling out.”

A giddy thrill rose in Elliot’s belly.

“That being said, you two still fucked up. Royally. We’re showing a surprising amount of support from the fan base, but numbers are down. Not as much as we expected, not even close. But down. Your social media following has dropped, we lost about five percent of the presale dollars on the album in returns.

"But I thought it was good— " Reece started.

Sasha held his hand up. "It is. But we’ll still need to spin this hard to make up those numbers.”

“Wait,” Danny asked. He held up his hand. “I just want to get this clear. Are you offering Elliot and I our contracts back?”

“Yes,” Sasha said slowly. Elliot could tell he didn’t want to say it.

“Then I’d like to go over it and the appearance clause with our lawyer. We’ll need to set up a meeting to make sure things are settled for both sides.”

Sasha gritted his teeth. “I figured as much.” He turned to Tate, Webb, and Reece. “Would any of you like to take this opportunity to skin me alive?” He had the lower hand. He knew it and he clearly hated it. A part of Elliot would’ve loved to take Sasha all the way to the fucking cleaners. But that wasn’t who he was. It wasn’t who any of them were.

“We just want it to be fair,” he said. “For all of us.”

“Yes. Have your lawyers look over these. I can meet with you tomorrow afternoon to discuss particulars.” Sasha slid two thick folders towards Danny and Elliot. “Until then, you two need to meet with Rebecca. She has some work to do.”

“We’re going in with them,” Tate said stubbornly. The other three nodded. Stubbornly. Elliot almost had to laugh.

Rebecca hugged Danny and Elliot when she walked into the conference room. “I’m so sorry about all of this, boys. I feel like I’ve caused more of it than I fixed.”

“You were just doing your job, Becks,” Danny said quietly. “All of that crap is over now. Let’s just figure out how to come out of it gracefully and hopefully move on.”

Rebecca sighed and took a seat. “We need to figure out the best way to deal with this.”

“Yeah, yeah, to keep the most amount of money coming in blah blah.” Elliot had heard it all a million times.

“No, not this time. I’m in it to protect you and Danny. It’s only been three days since it happened, and I’m sure Sasha told you that the response has been pleasantly surprising. But if all the stuff about Chelsea and cover-ups came out, I’m worried it will explode in your faces.”

“How can it not come out?” Danny asked. “It happened.”

“Not necessarily.”

“I don’t wanna lie anymore,” Elliot said. “I suck at it, and I freaking hate it.”

“We might have to tell one more—to save you two and Chelsea. This affects her as well.”

“So what is it now? Danny broke up with Chelsea, and I was there to comfort him? Suddenly we realized we’d always had feelings for each other, and we fell in love?”

Rebecca smiled. “You might be better at this than you think. We can’t lie completely. The older fans have always noticed the feelings between you two. We just have to change the date when you yourselves realized.”

Danny sighed. “I don’t like it.”

“D, it’s not the best, but what else can we do?” Tate gestured toward Rebecca. “It’s not like any of these people are going to stand up there and say they told you not to be with each other because it’s bad for sales. The only people who are going to look like assholes if it comes out you were together the whole time are you and Elliot.”