Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
None of us are more famous, or the leader, or meant to disappear into the background. We’re doing this whole thing as a team.
And as we close out the song, I realize we’re all about to talk about our love lives. As a team.
The lights go down once again, and I suck in a sharp breath.
Sean cuts to a commercial break and invites us over to his stage, where they’ve got a three-seater couch and then two barstools at the back. Sean shakes each of our hands, and then Denver and Mason take the stools while the rest of us take the couch. Harley’s closest to Sean because he’ll do most of the talking. This is his coming out story more than it is ours.
I’m on the other end with Ryder in between us.
“Welcome back! We are here with the one, the only, Eleven!” Sean claps, while we all wave to an invisible audience behind the stage lights.
I’m glad they’re blinding because I need them to be. I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous before. I’ve never spoken about my private life because I haven’t been allowed to. Then, the last few years, I haven’t had one. I’ve done nothing but work, basically.
Once the screaming dies down, Sean turns to us. “New single, new album, new tour … Everything is happening for you guys. Tell me, how did you manage to find enough time in your busy schedules to come back together?”
Good. He’s easing us into it, then.
“The hardest one to tie down was Blake.” Harley thumbs in my direction.
“Ah, yes, Mr. Movie Star,” Sean says. “How did you juggle recording an album while filming?”
“A lot of late nights,” I say easily. Or, as easily as I can manage. It comes out a bit croaky.
“Faking It will be out during summer, correct?”
“That’s the plan.” Here it comes.
“There were some rumors going around about you and a certain attractive co-star of yours …”
“Not everything you read is true, Sean. You should know that. But those rumors? Yeah, they’re true.”
The audience laughs. Positive reaction. That’s good.
“Though, I’d like to clear something up,” I say over the laughter and applause. “Jordan was one hundred percent single before anything happened between us. I was there for him through a hard time, and one thing led to another, and now … I couldn’t be happier.”
Sean leans back in his seat. “Okay, so let me get this straight.” He looks at the camera. “Or not so straight as it seems. Raise your hand if you are onstage and in a same-sex relationship.”
All five of us raise our hands.
“Wait, Harley?” Sean asks even though he knows full well and this is not a surprise at all. He’s a good actor.
“Hey, I’ve been queer a hell of a lot longer than any of these guys. Except maybe Ryder.” Harley grins.
Someone in the audience screams, “Ryley forever!” referring to Harley and Ryder’s ship name.
Ryder and Harley smile at each other.
“Are the Ryley rumors true too?” Sean asks animatedly.
Harley sighs. “We wish they were, but that would be like kissing my brother, and no thank you.”
“Agreed,” Ryder says. “I’m more than happy with my partner, Lyric.”
“Ah. Lyric Jones. He’s a friend of this show too and a rising music star.”
“He is,” Ryder says proudly.
Sean turns to Mason and Denver. “You two don’t have the same qualms as Ryder and Harley about mixing band dynamics and love.”
They hold hands.
“Not at all,” Denver says.
“Though the transition from best friends to more was a little weird in the beginning, I have to admit,” Mason says.
“Okay, I have to ask,” Sean says. “Why now? Why are you all coming forward now?”
Harley recites his rehearsed speech but knows how to deliver it like he hasn’t run over it a billion times. “The sad truth is, the music industry, film, television, you’d think it would be progressive, but one of the first things I was ever told when I was auditioning and trying to make it was ‘Don’t let anyone find out you’re gay.’ For years, we did what labels told us to do. We had advisors to make us marketable, coaches to teach us how to act.”
Sean looks knowingly at Harley. “It’s a tough business, and it’s hard to believe in this day and age it’s still like that.”
“It is,” Harley agrees. “When we split up, we were happy to be finally doing our own thing. Only, it didn’t take long for me to realize I was still toeing that line. I was still acting how they told me to act. Pretending to be someone I’m not. When I proposed we all get back together, it was to do it on our terms. Do it our way. And live our truth the way we should have been allowed to from the beginning.”
The crowd screams and applauds in support.