“I can’t,” I whisper, and he nods.
“I know,” he says, eyes flickering over mine. “But it doesn’t change the fact we have a story to tell. I want to tell it together — because it’s our story, isn’t it? And it’s beautiful despite all the scars.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, and he wipes the fresh tears away before kissing my forehead again and heading to the stage.
“So you’re probably all wondering who that chick over there is– and before all you girls get super jealous– she’s my sister and they’ve been best friends for almost as long as all of us have. Honestly, I get jealous sometimes,” Joey says as Danny takes his seat.
Danny leans over and kisses Joey’s cheek. “All better?”
Joey puts a finger on his lip and then leans his cheek back over for another kiss. Danny gives in, placing another kiss on my brother’s stubbly cheek. “Yes, I think that will do for now. We’re at least even.”
The crowd laughs.
Joey’s face goes serious again. “But guys, I hope you enjoyed that song. Danny spent a lot of time writing it and harassing us to get all of our parts perfect, which mind you was hard because he cannot sing. You can imagine how hard it was for me to understand his harpie-like imitations of what he wanted.”
Zack shakes his head. “Like something dying– unbelievable the lack of voice talent he has.”
Danny leans around Joey. “And you playing the drums is like a small child who just got into the pots and pans.”
Zack puts his hands up. “When you’re right, you’re right.”
“We digress,” Aaron points out and the guys are silent. I’m surprised when he continues. “I think I speak for the guys when I say that when we were presented with the opportunity talk about bullying we were honored. It wasn’t so long ago we were where you guys are now–, and it wasn’t easy. For some of us, it was harder than others. We all got put in these boxes– Danny was a band nerd, Joey was scene–well, he kind of still is–Zack was emo, but totally not emo.”
“And you liked to wrestle boys,” Zack points out, and I can’t help but roll my eyes.
“And that, yeah,” Aaron continues, he pushes his cheek out with his tongue. “We all had stereotypes we had to work past…but honestly, the hardest part of bullying is stepping back and seeing someone you love and care about endure it alone. Nicknames are just words right– but what if you don’t get what those words mean.”
“Like mine, it’s always been Madman,” Danny says, looking down at his feet before his gaze lifts to the crowd. “I hate it. I’ve always hated it. It’s always made me feel like crap, reminded me of things I don’t like thinking about.”
“And he’s never told us that,” Joey says, and he takes a deep breath. “See– we’re best friends, have been since we were thirteen, and we’ve been calling him that since he was like fifteen. Words have a different meaning to everyone based on whatever their experiences are– words that aren’t even meant to hurt can.”
Zack leans towards the microphone and looks at Danny. “You’re an awesome dude, Maddox. I wish you’d told us sooner.”
“Me too,” Danny says. “I should’ve said something. Letting someone in can help. I know that right now you might be thinking that there’s no one you can let in–but I promise you there is. There is someone desperate for you to let them in. That’s what that song is about. Maybe it’s your best friend,” His eyes come to mine; “someone you’ve loved for a long time but haven’t told them, or your boyfriend or girlfriend — or maybe it’s a parent or your favorite teacher, it doesn’t matter who. Just let someone in. You’re not alone. Let someone help set you free.”
The crowd is silent for a moment before they stand and begin to clap. At that moment, I realize that Danny’s still just as trapped as I am, but he’s taken a step towards talking about it, just like I have. His gaze finds mine, and I mouth the words.
Together.
Chapter 22
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia; we’ve already hit more states than I can remember the capital of, and we’re on the road to Pennsylvania with a few days break before the next event or concert. That means the guys are restless, and Paul is working on editing the music video we filmed in Baltimore with them hovering over him every five seconds. I’ve caught up on the band’s schedule, added a few more signings at stores and another talk at a school, despite the fact I’m not sure Danny and I’s secret relationship will stay hidden much longer if there’s another one of those. I glance over at him playing a video game with Joey, and he gives me a crooked smile that makes my heart hammer out of beat. I thought I’d be used to it after weeks on tour, but it still does the same thing to me– but then again, it always has.
Aaron comes into the lounge area and flops down next to me, putting a sweaty arm around my shoulders. “When’s the next time this thing stops?”
I shrug his nastiness away; nose scrunched as I look at him. “I figured you’d enjoy a few days off.”
“I can only work out so much,” he says, smirking at me as he flexes his pecs.
I gag a little, and he gives me a toothless smile. “I could do for a workout outside of the confines of the bus– shoot some hoops or something.”
“And I could go for some smooth tar to skate on,” I reply with a sigh. I’m honestly going as stir crazy as them.
“Although, it is entertaining to watch you flip your board over and dance around on it while the bus is moving,” Zack says, lifting a finger off his remote control and then cursing when his character’s head gets blown off. He tosses his remote down and huffs as he heads out of the room. “Jordan, my man!”
“What do you think he’s doing?” I ask, leaning away from a stinky Aaron.
“Hopefully, convincing Jordan to stop somewhere other than to go grocery shopping,” Danny replies, giving me a wink.
Grocery shopping with seven hungry guys, four of which are complete goofballs, is about as much fun as I imagine shopping with two-year-olds is. After doing it once, I’m committed to never doing it again. I nearly went insane between trying to rein them in to behave and trying to keep them from putting everything with a fun looking box into the cart. Even normally quiet Danny and Aaron went on a raid of the cereal department.
“Anywhere but grocery shopping,” I mutter as I shake my head.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Danny says as he outmaneuvers whatever thing he’s fighting on the game they’re playing.
“I was expecting you to at least behave,” I reply as I cross my arms. “But I guess I’ll just have to take one of the grown-ups with me the next time I shop.”
“And who would that be?” Danny shoots back, eyes flashing to mine before going back to the game.
“I don’t know, Jordan?” I reply.
Danny scoffs. “You’re going to take the old man with you grocery shopping? I doubt he’d go.”
“Well, are you going to behave next time?” I ask.
His eyes lock on mine. “Depends, is it just you and I going?”
His eyebrows rise quickly insinuating something that makes my stomach do all sorts of crazy-ass things. Things I kind of enjoy.
“Probably the best idea,” Aaron replies, and I glance up at him. He winks at me and then nods to Joey. “You think we can let Maddox help Sky next time?”
Joey shrugs. “I don’t see why not. He’s the one who’s typically the best behaved and would actually tolerate the whole boring-ass process. He does seem to enjoy being ordered order by her. Unless you want to go.”
Aaron chokes a little as he tries not to laugh, and I kick him under the table.
“Nope,” he says. “I’ll leave that to Danny. Although, Zack might have something to say about it.”
Joey rolls his eyes. “Zack won’t behave, so he automatically gets vetoed, and I sure as hell don’t want anyone to think I’m dating my sister.”
“So it’s okay for people to think I’m dating her?” Danny asks, and I can see his
vein in his forehead pulsing. Someone else would mistake it for concentrating on the game that he’s suddenly losing, but I can feel his tension from across the room.
“Wouldn’t be the first time, right?” Joey replies with a shrug and continues playing.
“I guess you’re right,” Danny says, relaxing back into his seat, a smile coming to his lips.
I look up at Aaron, and he still has that adorable smile on his face. Cat caught the mouse is the only way to describe it. He thinks he’s so clever, and I’m pretty glad he is.
“Alright!” Zack claps his hands as he comes back into the room. “We’re on like Donkey Kong, bitches! We’re stopping at a park with plenty of tar for the pretty lady and her skateboard, and some hoops for the men.”
“Perfect,” Joey replies, tossing his controller onto the table. “Lunch before?”
The guy’s turn to look at me, and I sigh as I look up at the ceiling. “Because none of you can figure out how to make a sandwich?”
Aaron pouts at me, leaning on his arms, and I’m pretty sure he knows I’d do anything for him at this point. “You just make them so much tastier– the perfect balance of mayo and mustard.”
“Or in my case, oil and salt and pepper,” Zack adds, cocking his head and giving what I assume he thinks is an adorable innocent look, except he’s not innocent of anything. I’ll give him adorable with the way he’s blinking at me slowly with a small smile.
“Fine.” I throw my hands up, and Aaron stands to let me out.
“Thank you, Sky,” they echo, synchronized in a creepy sing-song voice as they follow me back to the eating area.
I start making them lunch and Danny comes over and takes two pieces of bread.
“So you’re making your own now?” I ask, cocking my head at him as I work on Zack’s.
He shakes his head. “Yours.”
Zack gags. “Do you have to be so perfect all the time?”
Danny ignores him and grabs a few slices of tomato from the cutting board.
“Maybe that’s what his new nickname can be– the perfect man,” Zack adds, and Joey shakes his head.
“It’s Smiles. Done deal,” Joey replies, winking at me as I look over at him.
I hip check Danny. “That is the perfect name for you.”
He raises an eyebrow at me as he finishes the sandwich, puts some Cheetos on my plate and goes to sit down. Just as I finish making their lunches, Paul comes into the room and hooks his laptop up to the TV. We eat in silence as we watch the video. It’s amazing how on point everything is, perfectly balanced between my skating and the guys, so neither gets boring– and then there’s the ending. It turns out he didn’t remove Joey taking me to the ocean or the guys chasing after him, and it’s perfect. It’s so them, and I’m sure all their fans are going to love it.
“So what do you think?” Paul asks through a mouthful of ham and cheese. I’ve learned quickly what the non-band members like, too.
Joey looks around the table and then back to him. “Perfect, let’s get it up.”
Paul sends me the file, and I get it up on social media and post it on the Killer forum with a contest for sharing just as we arrive at the park. It’s pretty close to dusk, but that’s a good thing because even though it’s the end of September, mother nature doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge it until later in the day. The guys pile off the bus, and I follow with my board and spend twenty or so minutes getting warmed up and practicing before Zack shows up hauling my camera. I complete my pattern and then come to a stop in front of him with my hands on my hips. He lowers the camera and shrugs.
“Trade you?” he suggests, holding the camera out and nodding to my board.
I blink at him a few times. “Really?”
He jiggles my camera in front of me. “What do I have to lose? I lost my dignity like six years ago.”
“That is true,” Danny says as he comes up behind him and claps him on the back.
“You think you could do better?” Zack asks as he looks at Danny with narrowed eyes.
Danny purses his lips and nods. “Why not, I’m a little less lanky.”
Zack turns to me, and the look of determination on his face says it all. I take my camera as I push my board towards him.
“Try not to break it.”
Zack pushes away on shaky feet, and I glance over at Danny with my brows up.
He crosses his arms. “He’s more likely to break himself.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I say as I bring my camera up to my face. Zack’s extremely unstable, but that doesn’t stop him from running away from Danny on my board when he tries to take his turn on it. I get plenty of shots of each of the guys taking turns learning, and then Aaron and Zack attempting to try to ride it together with Zack sitting and Aaron pushing. After Zack falls and Aaron runs him over they decide it’s probably safer to play a game of basketball under the lights, and I get shots of them acting like total goofs as they play. The lighting is so unique that I manage to get them each serious for enough of a period to do some mini-shoots of them under the lights. My favorite is the one I catch of Danny leaning against a light pole just as Joey does something to make him laugh.
It’s past eleven by the time we get back on the bus, and we order Chinese instead of cooking. I eat mine in my bunk with the laptop open as I edit pictures and post some to social media, tagging the guys as I go.
Joey hangs over the edge of his bunk, staring down at me with his hair floating around him, for once not in his eyes. “You’re the best.”
I shrug, and he leans up, straining the muscles in his neck and arms as he holds himself floating above. “Boys! Change your profile pictures to be something from Sky’s shoot. If that doesn’t get their attention, I don’t know what will.”
“Whose attention?” I ask, and he swings off the bunk into mine.
He winks at me. “The label. At our last creative meeting with the CD peeps, they were trying to figure out what to do for cover art and stuff. We wanted your pictures. They were leaning towards something that was all graphics.”
“Personally,” Zack says, twirling a purple piece of hair in his fingers. “I think our beauty should be somewhere on it.”
“What if we combined both elements — you guys and then a graffiti style background?” I suggest, and Joey’s mouth drops open.
“Graphic design too, Sky? When will your talents stop?”
I put my hands up. “I’m not saying I can do it. It’d just be cool.”
“So the coercion begins,” Zack says, rubbing his hands together.
And I have a feeling they’re not going to stop until they get what they want.
Chapter 23
I’m woken up by my brother shaking me. I open my eyes and push him away, only to be jumped on by Zack.
“What did you do?” Zack asks, bouncing up and down on his butt until I’m lifting up from the bunk with each movement.
I rub my eyes. “What are you talking about?”
Zack shoves his cell phone in my face. “This!”
He’s wiggling it back and forth so fast that my eyes cross. I grab the cell phone and can see it’s the YouTube of the music video with a ridiculous amount of likes beneath it– hundreds of thousands.
“They really killed it,” I say as I yawn and push my way out of my bunk.
“Who killed what?” Danny asks, rubbing his eyes down to his scruff as he sits up.
Zack tosses his cell phone to Danny who somehow, despite still being half asleep, catches it. His eyes widen as he looks at the numbers.
“And you’re not surprised?” Danny asks, shaking his head as he smiles.
I shrug as my body rushes with tingles from the look. Waking up and seeing Danny first thing is almost as good as waking up in his arms. “I’m good, and I know it. Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to do FaceTime with one lucky fan.”
“The Killers?” Danny asks as he stands and pulls me into a hug. He uses the disarray of my hair to place a kiss
on my neck. His lips move to my ear as he whispers, “Good Morning, Love.”
I take the chance to snuggle into his chest, the thin layer of hair there tickles my face as I breathe in his scent. He pulls away too soon and gives me a half-hearted smile that says he really didn’t want to.
“Yeah, I think your fans are the reason the video blew up,” I say as I open up the band’s email on my phone. The happiness from a moment before disappears as I see the header to an email from the label titled URGENT.
“You okay?” Aaron asks from his spot at the table where he’s sipping a bottle of water and eating one of the birdseed bars I made him.
I sit down as I open the email without responding.
“Sky?” Aaron repeats, leaning forward and putting his hand on my cell phone so I’ll look up.
“The label wants to have an emergency meeting with me,” I reply and my voice shakes as much as the rest of me.
“Just you?” Joey asks, sitting next to me and taking the cell phone. I nod, and Danny comes up behind me to rub my shoulders.
“I’m sure it’s fine, Sky. You’ve been doing great.” He tries to reassure me, but my stomach rolls despite his soft words and hands.
I’m going to be fired for the first time in my life– from my first real job. From something I’ve absolutely fallen in love with.
My cell phone rings in Joey’s hands, and the band’s representative’s name flashes on the screen. I go to reach for it, but Joey picks it up instead and heads to the back room. I’m too mortified to move.
Zack takes a seat next to Aaron and Danny continues to rub my shoulders in the silence that falls over us. I glance over my shoulder to Danny, and he leans down to kiss my forehead. It’s probably something he shouldn’t be doing, but all of us are so worked up right now that no one seems to care. When Joey walks back in, his lips are in a straight line, and he hands me the phone as he runs his free hand through his hair.
“He wants to talk to you,” Joey says, and his voice is as flat as the expression on his face.
Out of Beat (Boys of Fallout Book 1) Page 12
