by K. C. Wells
“Do you think I’m a douche?” Chris rolled his eyes. “Love is love, right?”
Danny nearly choked at the word love. He wasn’t even close to ready for that. “Still. We’re both your friends, and we’re in the band together. I can’t tell him I like him as more than a friend. It would be an awful idea.”
“You can’t help who you fall for, man. You guys might decide not to do anything about it ever, but you were right to let Katie go. It was the best thing you could do for her.”
“I know. I still feel like an asshole. I never thought I’d be the guy who would break up with someone because I wanted someone else.”
“I don’t think you’re an asshole.” Chris grinned. “Pretty sure Elliot doesn’t think so either.”
“Thanks for listening, man,” Danny said. He bumped his fist against Chris’s.
“Anytime. And I’m guessing you’re not going to tell very many people about this, so if you need to talk again I’m here.”
“Yeah.” Danny smiled. “Pretty sure you’re going to be it. Thanks.”
“Again. Anytime.”
EVERYONE in the house gathered in the living room, crushed onto couches, chairs, any available surface. There was a camera crew and, Elliot gulped, Liselle Marten. He remembered watching her show after school every day back in middle school, where she’d count down all the day’s most popular videos and host famous pop stars. She didn’t do that anymore but still. She was an actual famous person. He couldn’t believe he was in a room with her. And she was going to be asking him questions just like she’d asked Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake. Elliot’s stomach clenched. He scooted closer to Danny on the couch. Maybe Danny’s proximity would help.
“You okay, El?” Danny asked.
“Nervous,” he replied.
“Listen,” Danny whispered. “This is just like our video diaries, right? But they’ll ask us questions. We don’t have to make shit up to be funny. It’s on them.”
Danny had a point. And maybe he would be able to just sit there and not talk. Chris was way more interesting than the others, right? And Danny and Reece usually spoke the most for Static.
“We all ready?” Liselle Marten asked. She adjusted her microphone and glanced over the group. There was a chorus of nods and yeses.
Danny slung his arm over Elliot’s shoulder and massaged his arm. “You’re fine, ’kay?” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”
Elliot nodded. He noticed Liselle glanced their way for a moment. “Okay,” the cameraman said, “cameras rolling in three… two….”
Liselle started the intro. “Hey, everyone. I’m Liselle Marten, and we’re in Santa Monica in the home of our new runaway hit Band Camp. We’ve gathered the cast here today to answer some of the viewers’ most pressing questions.” She waggled her eyebrows at the camera.
Everyone chuckled, but Elliot thought he saw a few nervous faces. He was nervous for sure. There were so many things he didn’t want to answer, so much that he was afraid the viewers could see written all over his face every single time he was near Danny. The girls called them “Delly” and gushed about how cute their friendship was, how adorable it was when they looked at each other. But they couldn’t know how he really felt. Elliot didn’t even want Danny to know.
Please don’t ask us about it…. Elliot wasn’t sure if he’d be able to lie. He was an awful liar.
“Okay, Rashawnda from Ohio wants the lowdown on feuds and catfights. Who doesn’t get along?”
Nervous laughter rippled along the cast. Mostly, everyone did get along. There had been some tension at first between Static and OCD, but as soon as they realized that Elliot and his friends weren’t total posers, they got along really well.
Chris, as usual, saved the day. He grinned at Liselle. “I’m not sure if it counts, but I almost killed Webb from Static the other night.”
Webb looked up, mortally outraged. “What’d I do, dude?”
“You ate my pizza. Tate told me it was you.” Chris leveled him with a long look and everyone laughed. “Josephine made that pizza especially for me, with pineapple. I’d been looking forward to it all day.”
“I like pineapple too,” Webb said with a pout. “I’ll make it up to you, man.” He reached out and ruffled Chris’s messy shock of bright blond hair.
“Awww, kiss and make up,” Liselle joked. She waited for a moment, but nobody else spoke up. “Well, since everyone seems reluctant to dish on the quarrels, why doesn’t everyone tell us who they do like. House crushes?” She grinned, Cheshire Cat-big and a bit frightening. “Let’s start with… Elliot from Static. We all know you have a special… friendship with your bandmate Danny, but is there a certain lady you have your eyes set on?”
Elliot panicked. Me? Why me? He had zero answers ready. Elliot glanced over to where Liselle was waiting patiently with her microphone aimed toward him. He wrung his hands together and happened to glance at the bright red ponytail of one of The Pixies. “I kind of have a thing for Savannah,” he muttered with as shy of a grin as he could manage. “I like redheads.”
Savannah jerked her head back to stare at him in shock, and Liselle smiled. Elliot imagined her smile was a bit like that of a shark right before it ripped the head of its prey. “Your friend Danny has red hair too, doesn’t he?” she asked.
Elliot wanted to die. Danny squeezed his shoulder. “I’ve always thought of it more as brown. Maybe a little auburn,” he said with a dramatic hair flip. “I’m not a ginger.” Everyone laughed at his typical antics, and the attention was taken off Elliot.
“Well, who do you have a crush on, then, Danny? We heard you’re recently single.”
“Well, if I can’t have Elliot…,” Danny joked with a grin, squeezing Elliot closer. Everyone laughed, and he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “My other choice, and don’t tell her because I’d be devastated if she turned me down, but I’ve kind of had my eye on Josephine. She makes the best cookies.”
Josephine. Their grandmotherly house cook. Everyone loved her… but not like that. The whole cast burst into laughter and Danny grinned. Liselle’s attention and the camera shifted off Elliot and Danny. Elliot breathed for the first time in nearly a minute. Danny squeezed his shoulder again.
The rest of the interview wasn’t bad. There were a few silly questions; most of the time Elliot didn’t even have to talk. He was relieved that Danny had removed the pressure, and he felt like an idiot for having singled out Savannah because he didn’t know what else to say.
THEY were all leaving the room after Liselle thanked them for their time when Elliot got a rough elbow in the ribs.
“Thanks a lot, El!” It was Savannah. His poor unsuspecting “crush.” “You’re going to have all your fangirls hating me now, and I didn’t even do anything.”
“Sorry.” Elliot laid his head on her shoulder. Over the past few weeks, the girls from The Pixies had become kind of like big sisters to him. He even let them mess with his hair and put eyeliner and blush on him a few times, much to Danny’s amusement.
“It’s okay.” Savannah gave him a long look. “I know you didn’t mean it, hon. You… didn’t mean it, did you?”
“No?” Elliot didn’t know how to answer that the right way. He didn’t want to hurt Savannah’s feelings but, well, no. They were just friends. He didn’t have room to feel anything like that for anyone other than Danny. Even then, his feelings barely fit inside him sometimes.
“That’s what I thought.” She smiled and put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m not blind, sweetie. I won’t say anything though.”
Elliot’s pulse raced. “Please don’t.”
Savannah kissed him on the cheek. “Promise. Now go, it looks like your boys are waiting for you.”
Tate, Webb, Reece, and Danny were indeed waiting near the doorway. They had a short recording session that night to put the final touches on a few of the songs before starting on new tracks. He waved at Savannah and headed toward the door with relief. As much as he liked the
other people in the house, sometimes it really was easier when it was just him and the guys… and Chris. Chris was easy too, other than the fact he saw way too much. Elliot came up behind Danny and wrapped an arm around his waist. Everything felt better when he was touching Danny.
“You guys ready?”
Webb chuckled. “Yeah. Done flirting with your crush?”
“Shut up.” Elliot felt his face turn red.
Staticgrl4life @Ellysbaby
#WeLoveDelly We can tell they have a “Special Friendship”. They’re soo cute together!!
Jessie R @MrsJackson94
The way they lean towards each other when they walk <3 awww #WeLoveDelly p.s. @TheWebbinator please follow me! I <3 you!!
Cait in CA @Dannyismine
@EPriceisRight gives @DannyBoy94 such big heart eyes. He looooves him:) I can share, El. It’s okay. #WeLoveDelly
Shelly Parker-Ryan @Tatesgirl4life
Danny and El are soooo flirty. It’s cute!! #WeLoveDelly
“Danny, El, check this out! Your romance is famous.” Reece catapulted onto the couch, laughing.
“Christ,” Danny chuckled. “Let me see.”
Reece handed over his laptop. “I think you two might even be more in love than me and Tate.”
“I have a girlfriend!” Tate called from the kitchen, where he’d been waiting for a batch of Josephine’s brownies to come out of the oven.
“You keep telling yourself that,” Reece shouted back. “You and I are meant to be!”
Webb and Reece high-fived each other. They had fun getting Tate all worked up over the “Rate” thing. It was fun for Webb and Reece and a joke for everyone concerned, at least as far as Danny knew. He and Elliot were a joke too… mostly. Except his body wasn’t joking every time it got all warm and melty ’cause Elliot was squished up against him on the couch, and it sure as effing hell hadn’t felt like a joke when a white-hot streak of jealousy singed every one of his nerve endings that awful moment Elliot had said he had a crush on Savannah.
Hell, Danny knew Elliot had been making that crap up. It was obvious he’d pulled a name out of his butt. Danny knew Elliot well enough to know he’d been lying, and still he hated it. So yeah, Delly was more than a joke for Danny, more than a friendship, more even than just simple attraction, ’cause who wouldn’t be attracted to Elliot? For Danny, it was real damn feelings—friendship and attraction and something a whole hell of a lot more growing from the first two. It felt crazy good and scary at the same time, and really all he ever wanted was to be with Elliot. All the time. If he wasn’t standing next to Elliot, he felt like he had to look at him. If he was, he had to touch him. If he was touching him, well, he wanted to touch more, feel his skin, his hair, his lips. It was intense. Involuntary. Impossible to ignore.
“Hey, look. There are pictures too. I googled ‘Delly’, and there are all these shots of you guys walking around the pier last weekend.” Reece pointed at his computer screen. Danny’s heart raced. What pictures? They hadn’t done anything, just hung out, but who’d been watching them?
“You guys, like, walk weird,” Webb pointed out. “Have you always done that? You’re all squished up against each other and in step….”
Danny shrugged. He’d honestly never noticed. Whenever he was with Elliot, they just were. It’s not like he thought about it. Much. “I guess so. We just walk alike? I don’t know.”
The pictures didn’t look like him, Danny thought. At least not a him he recognized. The girls were right. If Danny had been looking at pictures of two strangers and had been asked what they were to each other, he’d have said he and Elliot were a couple. Together. They did stand close and stared and smiled at each other constantly and bumped elbows and walked in step. Danny hadn’t even been like that with Katie. For sure not with anyone else. It made his stomach drop to think someone could look at those pictures and see what was clear as day to him. His feelings for Elliot, right there in the open. And maybe, just maybe, Elliot’s feelings in return. Danny nearly choked.
“Hey, guys, I think I’m going to go up and read. I’m tired.” It wasn’t all that late, but he needed to think. Needed to get out of the public eye for a minute.
“’Night, big D,” Webb muttered. He’d been giving Danny crap for his height since the beginning. It wasn’t like he was that much shorter than the others, but they knew it bugged him.
“’Night, pretty boy,” Danny said in return. “Reece, Els.” He reached out and ruffled each of the others’ hair in turn. “’Night, Tate!” he called into the kitchen.
“I’ll be up soon. I’m kinda tired too,” Elliot said. Both Webb and Reece chuckled and gave low, hooting whistles.
Elliot rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant. Knock it off.”
“But you two are so cuuuute together,” Reece mocked, fanning himself with his hand. “You’re sooooo flirty.”
Webb pulled his snapback over his face and giggled into it. Reece plucked the hat out of his hands and popped it backward onto his own head.
“You guys suck. I’m going to hang out with Chris.” Elliot peeled himself up off the couch and waved to Danny, who turned for the stairs, chuckling. He heard Webb and Reece arguing over Webb’s hat until he got to the top of the stairs.
“I SWEAR I’m not going back down there tonight,” Elliot said. He flopped down on his bed with a sigh.
Danny chuckled. He’d been reading, but he’d never say no to Elliot’s presence. He put down his book. “How come? What’s wrong?”
“It’s so annoying. Ever since that interview they are, like, constantly following me with a camera. I think they’re trying to catch me putting the moves on Savannah. Like that’s gonna happen.” Elliot rolled his eyes.
Danny felt another streak of jealousy, unfounded, of course, since he knew Elliot wasn’t after the girl from The Pixies—in fact, he’d never really seen Elliot flirt with any girl beyond a pleasant smile. Danny gritted his teeth. Don’t be an idiot. He forced himself to smile, maybe even chuckle a little even though he didn’t mean it one little bit. “It’s your fault. You said you had a thing for her.”
Elliot rolled over to face Danny. “I know,” he groaned. “I didn’t mean to. There is nothing there. I just got flustered and she was sitting right in front of me and her name came out of my mouth.” He put his hand over his face. “I’m such a moron. Could I be any more awkward?”
“Quit putting yourself down, El. You’re not awkward.” Elliot still had no idea how much everyone liked him. That baffled Danny. “It’s just this situation. Drama sells. It brings in viewers. Hey.” He winked. “If it wasn’t you and Savannah, maybe it would be me and Josephine.”
It worked. Elliot burst into laughter. “I still can’t believe you said that. Josephine! She has grandkids.”
“She really does make the best cookies in the world. We’re going to get married.” Danny tried for a serious face. It almost worked.
Elliot giggled and flopped onto his back. “Josephine,” he muttered, still giggling. He turned and must’ve noticed the book in Danny’s hand. “Sorry if I bugged you. I’ll be quiet if you want to read.”
“Nah, it’s okay. You want to play cards or something?”
“Sure. Speed?”
“Yeah, I like speed.”
Elliot went for his deck of cards. “Should’ve known you’d never have patience for poker or something.”
Danny reached out and swatted Elliot’s leg as he walked by. “Just don’t want to whip your butt. You have, like, zero poker face. I know all your tells.”
“Sure you do.” Elliot grinned and sat across from Danny on Danny’s bed. “Are we betting?”
“On speed? I wouldn’t want to take all your money, little man.”
“I’m taller than you.”
Danny snorted. “That’s not what I was talking about.”
“Hey! You don’t even know—” Elliot caught himself getting outraged and snorted. “Maybe we should get anaconda Reece in here to judge.�
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“Deal the cards, youngling.” Danny liked to tease Elliot about how he was six months younger, making him the baby of the group. Webb and Reece were twenty, Tate at the tail end of nineteen. It was only he and Elliot who had just gotten out of high school.
“Yes, Yoda.”
Elliot laid the cards out to begin a game of speed. Danny got lost for a moment watching his hands, long fingered and elegant, probably the only thing about Elliot that wasn’t adorably dorky and uncoordinated. Danny loved how those fingers felt entwined with his, around his neck, in his hair, cupped on his hip.
“Ready?” Danny shook himself out of his momentary daze.
“Yep.” Elliot grabbed his first five cards. “Let’s do this.”
Danny and Elliot started slamming cards down, laughing and trying to knock each other out of the way. As with pretty much everything Static did, speed soon devolved into more horseplay than actual game playing. Elliot grabbed cards from the wrong piles, shoving them down where Danny’s cards had been. Danny grabbed the same cards and tossed them aside, putting his back where they belonged. They both started to laugh and couldn’t stop until they were out of breath and rolling around on top of the cards. Danny finally got Elliot pinned underneath him, ready to tickle the hell out of him. After all, it was Elliot who’d started the second game, the one that had nothing to do with cards.
But his eyes, huge and golden-brown and laughing, they must’ve done something funny to Danny, made him lose his sanity there for a second, because the next thing he knew, he was leaning forward and brushing their lips together and it felt so damn right. Elliot’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then he closed them and lifted his face into the kiss like it felt right to him too. The next step for them. Danny shivered. He wanted to do so much more—drop down onto his elbows, dig his fingers into Elliot’s hair, sink his tongue into Elliot’s mouth, nibble, taste, never ever stop….