Echoes of Us (20 page)

The cops were called more than once. They set up barricades and tried to control the crowds, but girls still managed to elude them. We found a few peering over the fence when we were sitting in the kitchen.

After two days, we’d all had enough. Andy told us to come back to LA. He had potential band members for us to meet. I was totally disappointed with the whole mess. What the hell was going to happen when the album dropped?

That question was answered three days later when we released the first single from our album. It shot to the top of the charts within two weeks. Andy and Trevor had finally agreed on “Dreamin’ Out Loud” as the first single
.
We kept the homemade video up on YouTube, but Andy said since the song was such a success, we would be shooting a new professional video. Maggie and Kelli told Andy we should use clips from the original video. He was so impressed with that idea he listened to more suggestions from the girls.

The single exceeded the expectations of everyone. Andy didn’t say much, but Trevor made a big deal about it, taking us all to an exclusive club with one of those back rooms reserved for important people. I had never really believed those were a real thing. Trevor tried his best to keep Jade and me separated, but there was way too much alcohol involved. We didn’t blatantly make out or anything, but there was a lot of groping under the table. Jade tried to kiss me, but I managed to turn him away before there was any lip-to-lip contact.

Some fuzzy videos and pictures found their way to the Internet, but to me, it just looked like we were partying. I didn’t think it was a big deal. Andy kept his mouth shut, but the way he eyed us was enough to keep Jade from hooking his ankle with mine when we were doing a radio interview.

After the interview, Pete picked us up to bring us back to the studio. We were meeting with some musicians who Trevor thought would be good in our band. I couldn’t believe we were going to have a band. It was strange enough to hear my lyrics intertwined with professional musicians playing backup for us. On two of our songs, we actually used a string quartet. It was fucking awesome.

Pete had the radio tuned to LA’s most popular music station. Jade was holding my hand and staring out the window. The stoplight turned red and Pete stopped the car. The DJ came on the radio and started talking about this hot new band making a huge splash in the music scene. He babbled some more about the talented duo and then announced the title: “Dreamin’ Out Loud” by Rylan and Jade.

“What?” Jade shouted and sat up. “Pete, turn it up!”

The first notes of our song blared from the speaker, and suddenly the car was filled with Jade and me singing. Jade shrieked and rolled down the window, shouting at the carload of girls next to us.

“Turn your radio on!”

The girls glanced at us, and he shouted it again, telling them the station call letters. They turned up their radio so it was blaring along with ours.

“That’s us,” he screamed, yanking on my shirt so the girls could see me. I waved.

They started squealing and taking pictures of us hanging out the window. Pete hollered at us to get back in the car because the light was green. We waved at the screaming girls, who were still sitting at the light.

“Holy shit,” Jade said. “It’s us.”

It was silly because we knew our single was out there, but to hear it played on the radio when neither of us was expecting it was spectacular. Jade called Maggie and shouted into the phone, holding it in the air so Maggie could hear the song.

She squealed as loud as those girls. I think I was in shock, but I managed to tweet about the experience. When the song ended, Jade eyed Pete in the rearview mirror. He glanced around and nodded. Jade pulled me down and kissed me until I was gasping for air. Our red swollen lips were going to be hard to hide from Andy, but we didn’t give a shit. In my head, hearing my song on the radio made me a legitimate musician. Suddenly, I had no desire to go to the studio. I wanted to go home and spend the day with Jade celebrating our success, but Andy wanted to meet some potential band members. There was no way for us to get out of it.

The studio was packed with people. The moment we opened the door, all eyes focused on us. Andy spotted us and waved us to the back office. We had to meander through a long line of people before we were face to face with Andy. He pulled us into a small office and closed the door.

“I’ve got some great news. The preorder sales for the album are phenomenal,” Andy said. “I just got off the phone with Daniel Jay. You boys are going to be opening for one of the biggest acts in the world. They are already touring, but we’ll hook up with them in a month.”

Somewhere deep inside my head, I knew this was wonderful fucking news, but at the same time, it made me want to puke. We were going on tour in one month. We didn’t have a band or a stage show or much of anything.

“Holy shit,” I murmured and sank to the floor. Jade was close behind, leaning against my shoulder. I waited for Andy to yell about the body contact, but I think he was blinded by dollar signs floating in front of his face.

“We don’t have a lot of time, so we’re going to be working nonstop. We need to get the band together in two days so they can start learning the songs and we can start staging a show,” Andy said.

Jade said something, but all I heard was a loud roaring in my ears. He must have grabbed my shoulders before I tipped over.

“You need to quit doing that,” Jade said. We were standing in the bathroom, and Jade was holding a damp towel on my forehead.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “It’s been a crazy day.”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“I don’t think I remember,” I mumbled, sticking my nose in his neck. He smelled good.

“Let’s get you some food and then check out our potential band members.”

“Okay, don’t get too far away from me,” I said.

“I won’t,” he promised. “Ever.”

Jade ushered me out of the bathroom and told Andy we needed food. It was going to be a long fucking night.

T
HE
NIGHT
lasted three long weeks. Once again, we were working so hard I didn’t know when one day ended and the next one started. Maggie and Kelli were also wrangled into working. Andy had them assisting Ella K with our wardrobe, and she was almost as bad as Andy. He also had Maggie running around the country setting up promotional opportunities for us when we were on tour. I still couldn’t believe we were going on tour.

There was so much to get done and so much to remember. The songs were the easy stuff. They were actually trying to choreograph dance moves for us. Jade rolled his eyes a lot. I knew he’d change the shit during the concert, so why the hell did I have to learn it. Our staging person yelled a lot and pulled her hair. By the time the entire show was staged, she was a wreck. I think we gave her a permanent twitch, especially after our first dress rehearsal.

Like I tried to tell her, when Jade got in a groove, he changed everything. I’d learned to just follow along with him. The shows in Chicago had always been interesting. One time, he took a picture of the audience and tweeted it. Another time, he told a fan to tweet everything about the show. He posted her Twitter name and she got a shitload of followers. A few times, he jumped into the crowd, making Dave and Brent freak out. I stayed on the stage and watched as Dave tried to grab Jade and put him back on stage.

The only thing that stayed the same in the set was the order of songs, which would make our new band very thankful. Our band started with the auditions of almost fifty different people. We’d reduced the final number to three. Ethan played guitar and probably every other instrument known to man. He was amazingly talented and had the looks to match. His dark hair hung over his eyes, giving him that mysterious bad-boy persona. His biceps were impressive and made me drool. Jealous Jade made an appearance the first day we met Ethan. Jade stuck close to me, even going as far as sliding his fingers under my shirt, touching the small of my back when I tried to have a conversation with Ethan.

It would have been easy for me to pull Jade aside and assure him I was his forever, but it was a little fun to fuck with him.

Our new drummer was all sinuous muscle and long limbs, and he had a British accent that almost made me wet my pants when he spoke. Jens and Jade hit it off immediately, and now it was my turn to be jealous, until Jens started talking about all the babes lined up outside.

The news of the tour sent our fans into a frenzy. They hung around in huge clumps outside the studio. Andy regularly sent us out to talk with them. Word got out that we were nice, and more and more girls started showing up. Sometimes, all we did was shout a quick hello before Dave and Brent hauled us into the studio. More than once, we had to change locations because there were so many people lining the streets it wasn’t safe for us.

The bass player was the strong, silent type. He made me shiver when he talked. Not only did he play the bass, he had a voice that matched. I think Brody could make anyone shiver.

The big question was how much information to tell them before they accepted their new positions. They might not want the job when they found out about us. Andy didn’t want to tell them anything, but they were going to be part of our inner circle, and I needed to be able to trust them.

We decided to invite the guys to the house for dinner and drinks so we could discuss things in private. We didn’t tell Andy about the meeting. As far as he was concerned, they were already in the band.

I was a nervous wreck and Jade was no better. He’d never had to out himself to anyone, and he had no idea how to do it.

“Let’s just see how the evening plays out,” I said, giving him a kiss on the neck.

“Okay,” he agreed. “They all seem like nice guys. I think it will be just fine.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him sometimes people changed when they heard the word gay. I still found it strange I had to tell people whom I was dating. Straight people didn’t have meetings to announce who was in their beds.

Pete brought Ethan, Jens, and Brody over early in the evening. We asked him if he wanted to hang out, but he was going to be busy driving Trevor around tonight, so he declined.

“Rylan,” Pete said. “It’s going to be okay.”

I sighed loudly. “I hope so.”

“Trust your instincts,” he said.

I nodded and waved, then watched as his taillights disappeared into the night. Everyone was in the dining room, gathered around the table. I made a quick decision to expose our secret quickly, like ripping off a bandage. There was going to be no stammering or trying to find the right words to bring this out into the open.

Jade was on the other side of the table, watching me move toward him. I gave him a sweet little smile, and it was like he read my mind. He stood up and opened his arms. Maggie gave me a wide-eyed look, but then she winked when I slid under Jade’s arms and let him embrace me.

“We have a secret,” I said, eyeing everyone at the table. “If you want to be a member of the band, we need to know that you will stand beside us.”

They were silent for a few seconds.

“I thought we were having dinner,” Brody said. “I’m starving.”

“Is that all you think about?” Ethan asked.

“Pretty much. I like food. Oh, I guess I think about playing the bass at Madison Square Garden and everywhere else. And sex. I think about sex too.”

Ethan started laughing, and Jens joined him.

“So,” I said. “Does this mean you guys want to join Jade and me?”

“Just on stage,” Jens said. “I mean, you’re both really fit, but I like the birds, er, ladies. Speaking of which, how do you two fit into this story?” He gestured at Maggie and Kelli.

“Maggie is my real best friend and my current fake girlfriend. Kelli is my real sister and Jade’s fake girlfriend,” I answered.

We spent the rest of the evening eating, drinking, and getting to know each other.

“So, how do you do it?” Ethan asked. “It can’t be easy.”

“The girls are part of the contract,” I said. “We get yelled at a lot. It’s hard to hide how I feel about him.”

“I knew the moment I met you guys. Jade is very protective of you. I think he thought I was hitting on you,” Ethan said.

“Were you?”

“If you weren’t head over heels for him, I’d probably give it a shot.” Ethan smiled.

“Are you gay?”

“I like to think I fall in love with the person, not the gender.”

We were going to get along just fine. In fact, we all got along so well, Andy thought there was something wrong with all of us.

It was nice to have more people in our corner. I don’t think I could have hidden my feelings for Jade from the band. We were spending a lot of time in close quarters, and sometimes I needed to be aware of Jade when I was getting stressed. Having the band know about us made things a lot easier.

Rehearsals were a lot of work, but having the boys on stage with us made me feel like a big-time act. Maggie and Kelli did their jobs by showing up at different times to come see us at rehearsals. There was always a camera around when that happened.