“Hmm. Zach’s mom tried to shut her down a few times but she needs backup.”
Zach looks pleased. “Good.”
“You’d better hope she doesn’t lose her temper,” Angel says. “That’ll make the wedding awkward.”
Zach kicks at him and he jumps out of the way. “You’re lucky you have a cast on,” he grumbles.
Angel spreads his arms to the sides as best as he can. “Oh yeah? Ignore it. Come at me. Go on.”
They face each other down for a few seconds. Suddenly, Zach jumps up and Angel tears off toward the elevator, screaming for help at the tops of his lungs. The pool family looks on in alarm.
“Okay, for real, though, are you two all right?” Jon asks me as we follow after them.
“Yeah. I think we will be.” I take a deep breath. “What about you?”
He shrugs a single shoulder. “I don’t know whether I’m happy we’ve moved out or … I don’t know. I never thought my parents would ever separate. And they haven’t, officially, I guess, but I don’t see where else it could go from here.”
“You wanna talk about it?” I ask. “We can hang back for a second?”
Jon thinks, then his eyes blaze. “Not really. What I want is to go back in and find out how we’re going to make Dad regret everything he’s done to us this year.”
I fold my arms and raise my eyebrows. “Let’s do it.”
THIRTY
ZACH
“Zach!” says Ruben, shaking me awake, ending my sleep-in early. “Look at this.”
I open my eyes slowly. We’re both in my bed, and the last thing I recall was having my arms wrapped around him as we drifted off.
He’s been at my place for the past few days, ever since the family meeting, when Mom offered to let him come home with us. And honestly? It’s been the best. I don’t know how I’d be handling things if I didn’t have him here. He just has a way of making everything so much better.
Our families are still in constant contact, figuring out a way to make Chorus pay for what they did. Mom is pretty much always on the phone to the other moms now. They call themselves the Mom Squad, and they get shit done. Geoff should be terrified.
Ruben is sitting upright, his back pressed against the headboard. His face is lit up by the blueish light of his phone screen.
I shuffle upright, so I’m beside him, and he shows me his phone.
It’s the Billboard email, with the recently updated Hot 100 chart. I knew it was coming out this morning, but I’ve been trying not to think about it. Ruben is practically humming, though, which makes me think this isn’t going to be as upsetting as I thought. I scan the list. “Overdrive” is number one, but seeing it stings. I may have given my vocals to it, but it doesn’t even remotely feel like my song anymore. Geoff may as well be listed as the artist.
Plus, its success can be attributed to the endless news coverage we’ve gotten lately. Our relationship has been dissected by pretty much every major magazine and site out there. The New York Times did a piece on it. It’s still being talked about almost nonstop, twenty-four-hour news cycle be damned. I guess that’s just what happens when two boy band members reveal they’ve been dating in secret. It demands attention.
I’ve been trying my best to avoid all the online discourse, which is about me but is being used as a launching pad for a variety of other things, like criticism of the boy band formula in general and many much-needed examinations of the music industry.
A lot of it is good. The fight is good. But right now, this early, I just want to be with my boyfriend. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.
So I offer his phone back. “Great. Maybe Geoff can buy himself another yacht.”
“Look down,” he says.
I scroll.
“End of Everything” is charting at number four.
I stare at it, like if I even blink, it’ll disappear. “End of Everything” isn’t a single yet, it was released as an additional track with “Overdrive,” as Chorus and our label wanted to see how the public would react to it before deciding on a second single. It’s not supposed to chart. It hasn’t even had a music video, and it hasn’t had any real label push. Yet there it is, the fourth most popular song in the country.
It’s all from the fans.
“Keep going,” says Ruben.
“Guilty” is at number nine, which could be a record as that song came out more than two years ago, and now it’s in the top ten. Normally, only holiday songs appear on the charts years after they’ve been released.