“What’s going on?” Hector asked.

“I don’t know,” I said.

Laughter broke out at the bar, the kind you could tell is laughing at instead of with. The source seemed to be Lacey, who sat with the banjo player from The Quiet Battles and the busty singer of Brazen, a pop band from Team Lance. They stopped and gave us fake smiles as we passed by and then started giggling when our backs were to them.

“Why do I feel like I’m in middle school again?” Kyle asked after we got into the elevator.

“Oh, shit.” Jared stared at his phone, and the expression on his face worried me more than anything.

“What is it?” I asked.

He waited until we were in their room and then held his phone up to show us. There, on his tiny screen, was an image of me in Jared’s arms, my face pressed against his shoulder as he kissed the top of my head. We were in our white outfits from the last live show, the photo taken after my glasses went missing while he was comforting me. It was an intimate, private moment when we’d thought we were alone—and someone had plastered it all over the Internet.

Lacey. It had to be her.

“What the fuck is that?” Hector asked.

Kyle’s head snapped back and forth between me and his brother. “Are you two together?”

I opened my mouth to confess everything, but Jared said, “No! This isn’t what it looks like.”

“Then who were you with last night?” Hector asked, crossing his arms.

“Just some groupie I met after the show. I don’t even remember her name.”

“Maddie, is this true?” Kyle asked, looking me right in the eye.

Behind him, Jared shook his head at me. I was torn between the two brothers, one a friend and one something more. I’d have to betray one of them no matter what I chose. I didn’t want to keep this a secret from the guys, but I couldn’t call Jared on his lie in front of them either. And, if I was honest with myself, I was afraid to admit the truth to them, too.

“He’s right. It’s not what it looks like. This was taken right after my glasses were stolen, when I was having a panic attack. Jared was helping me calm down, that’s all.” That part wasn’t a lie, at least.

Hector poked his finger into Jared’s chest. “Swear to us. Swear right now you’re not together and we’ll drop it.”

Jared raised his hands and said, “I swear.”

I nodded and kept my face blank, but inside I was breaking in two. When the show was over, we’d have to tell the guys the truth, and I could already imagine how angry they’d be.