“Jared spent the night with someone,” Hector said, in a singsong voice. Whoever said guys didn’t like to gossip clearly had no idea what they were talking about.

“First time since we’ve been on the show,” Kyle added. He raised his eyebrows at me, but I couldn’t tell if he was suspicious or giving me a warning or what.

I focused on adding sugar and cream to my coffee. “Good for him.”

“It’s been so long I was worried about him,” Hector said, slapping Jared on the back. “Thought he was getting soft in his old age.”

Jared coughed into his cup of tea. “Do any of you find it odd we’re standing here talking about my sex life? No?”

“Nah, everyone talks about your sex life.”

Jared flipped Hector off, and the guys all laughed. I felt bad that he had to keep up this act with his two closest friends, but they’d also just confirmed that he hadn’t been with anyone else in weeks too. Thank you, guys.

Jared caught me yawning and gave me a knowing grin. “Tired?”

“I’m just stressed about the show, that’s all.”

“I hear that,” Kyle said while he refilled his coffee. “Hard to believe there are only two weeks left.”

Two weeks and two bands per team. We’d made it into the semi-finals, and win or lose, soon all of this would be over. This week’s votes were crucial, though, since if we made it to the finals, we’d get a spot on the tour across the country. But the competition was also stronger than ever, since only the best bands remained at this point.

“The Quiet Battles are pretty popular, so we really need to bring it this week,” Jared said.

“Can we beat them?” Kyle asked.

“I think so, but it’ll be close.”

Hector grunted. “We’ve come this far. We are not going home now.”

I hoped he was right. Being sent home now, when everything we wanted was within our grasp, was impossible to consider. It just couldn’t happen; my brain rejected the idea completely. Of course, The Quiet Battles probably felt the exact same way, but only one of us would be on Team Dan a week from now.

We finished up and headed to our practice room to get started. My hand brushed Jared’s hip as I walked past him, and it sent a little thrill through me, touching him right under the other guys’ noses without them knowing. Even though I wished we could be open about our relationship, I couldn’t deny that having a secret romance was pretty damn hot, too.

Dan was already waiting for us, reading something on his phone.

“Oh, hey,” he said, when we entered. “Great job on Saturday. I just heard from Steve that your version of ‘Enjoy the Silence’ was the most downloaded song this week, so congrats on that.”