Catch My Breath (9 page)

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….

“H
OW
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 yourself 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.

“H
I
,
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.

I
T
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.