Sixteen.

Alejandro had the remarkable ability to tie Chris's tie so that it would remain straight and tight all night, and yet never feel like it was strangling him. Chris could usually manage to get it either straight or tight, but never both, so it was just one more thing on an extensive list of reasons to adore Alejandro.

"How do I look?" Chris asked.

Alejandro grinned and ducked his head, and didn't say anything.

"Are you two trying to kill me?" Richard asked. "Some of us are painfully single, remember?"

"Only because you never stop talking about it," Chris answered. "It's been three months. Move on."

"Move on? How am I supposed to move on from the most desired woman on the planet? I can't go out without seeing her face plastered on something—"

"As opposed to you just being plastered?" CJ suggested.

"—Shut up. I can't go out, and I can't go out with anyone because who can I possibly go out with who's not a step down from Shawna!"

"Um… Someone who wouldn't cheat on you?" Alejandro hazarded.

"Shut up!"

Nick gave Richard's face a patronizing pat. "Now sweetie, that's the wrong attitude. Do you want me to fix you up with someone? I've been finding date after date for CJ—"

"And I've heard about CJ's dates, so no thanks."

"You haven't had to live through them," CJ groaned. "I am never, ever going to find someone."

"Ha," Richard muttered.

"See, at least you had someone."

"She broke my heart!"

Nick cleared his throat. "CJ, you'll adore this girl. She's beautiful."

"I'll bet she's not as beautiful as Shawna."

"Richard, are you drunk already?" Nick scolded.

"Little buzzed."

"Sweetie, this is a bad habit. We're worried about you. You never used to—"

"I just like to party a little. That's what single guys do, right?"

The rest of the band exchanged slightly worried glances. It was true that they did party; even Alejandro occasionally gave in and drank until he could barely walk to his room. (Or, more often in the last few months, to Chris's.) But all the same, since Richard and Shawna had broken up, Richard seemed to be going a bit… overboard.

"So…" CJ said, hoping to break the awkward quiet. "Is she interesting?"

"Fascinating," Nick said.

"Interesting like… circus freak? Or interesting like… fascinating?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, but I do seem to recall her saying something about webbed feet."

"Nick!"

"Kidding!" he laughed.

Alejandro went to work on his own tie and commented, "So… Platinum, huh?"

"Like, triple platinum," Chris said. "Twenty-four hours and we're the best selling band of all time. Did you know that? Of all time."

"Technically, we're just the fastest selling band of all time," Richard said.

"Whatever, we broke a record. We rule."

"He's going to be insufferable all night, isn't he?" Nick sighed. "Just because someone's first attempt at songwriting—"

"Is the most requested single of all time?" Chris finished. "Yeah, I might be a little bit smug. Alejandro, am I smug?"

"You're adorable."

"His ego doesn't need any of your help, Alejandro," Richard muttered.

"Okay, maybe a little bit smug," Alejandro agreed. "But I happen to find it adorable."

Chris grinned and kissed Alejandro's cheek.

"Man, I remember back when you two hated each other. Those were the days," Richard sighed. "Now you're all… irritating… and Nick and Ryan could not be any more obvious if they actually tried to get caught, and CJ's on a quest for true love, and I was dumped by Shawna fucking Rivers."

"Technically, I think you dumped her," Chris reminded him.

"She cheated on me!" Richard glowered. "With… With Wayne!"

Chris laughed. "Look, you didn't want to let her apologize, maybe it wasn't a big deal until—"

"Not a big deal?" Alejandro interrupted. "She slept with someone else."

"Well, yeah, but… showbiz." Chris shrugged. "I dunno, I mean, I would never do that," he said quickly, "but some people don't think it's such a big deal."

"I still don't always understand you," Alejandro said.

"It's not too hard. Ahem." CJ pitched his voice up, parodying Chris. "Hi, my name is Chris Ivers. Love me! Love me now! Everyone love me!"

Everyone started laughing except for Chris, but even he took it in stride. The guys had noticed that Chris had gotten much better about laughing at himself since he and Alejandro had been together—Alejandro was probably good for his ego (though he still refused to play basketball) but helped keep him down to earth, which he needed.

Richard managed not to glare at them as the laughter subsided. Stupid couples.

CJ sat down. His date—Laura, apparently—was cute enough, though she looked just like every other woman who wanted to look like Shawna, which, given his chosen business, was basically all women.

"So…" he said, when she didn't say anything. "How was your day?"

She stared at him for a long second. "Fine," she finally said.

"Oh… good," he answered. "Um, so, how did you and Nick meet?"

She stared at him again. "Like… at a dance comp."

"Oh, cool! So, you're a dancer."

"Yeah."

He tapped his fingers against the table. "Um… So… how long have you been dancing?"

"Like… awhile."

He raised his hand a little and motioned to the waiter, a cute Latino guy who was probably no older than CJ himself. "Could I get a drink, please? Very quickly?"

"What would you like?"

"Anything," CJ said. "Just… fast. Please."

The waiter glanced at CJ and his date, and nodded. "Right away, sir."

"So…" CJ said to his date. "Nice party, huh?"

She stared at him.

"Um, for my band? That I'm in?"

Stare.

"So, um, you do know I'm in a band, right?"

"Um… yeah."

"Um… Yeah," he repeated. "Look, you have to say something. Anything. Conversation makes the world go round."

"Um… What?"

He groaned. "Never mind."

Nick supposed it was rude to spend a whole party that was being thrown in their honor on his cell phone, but Ryan had been strictly forbidden from attending (Denton had nearly had an aneurism when he realized that not just one or two members of the band were gay, but every single one of them was gay or bi) for fear that the press would realize just why they were such close friends. And parties were no fun without Ryan.

He was sitting at the bar and watching everyone around him—other band members, guys who worked for the record label, and the elite party goers of the city. It was a fairly exclusive party that somehow also managed to be huge. He'd already lost track of CJ in the crowd, but hoped his date was going well. He was getting tired of hearing CJ whine about the quality of girls Nick set him up with.

"Hey, babe," Ryan greeted him. "How's the party?"

"Not as much fun as it would be if you were here."

"I miss you."

"I miss you too."

"Um, are you sure it's okay for us to talk like this? I don't want to get you in trouble for blowing off the party…"

"I'd rather be blowing—"

"Nick, sweetie, I'm sure there are other people in the room. That can't be appropriate."

"Fine, have it your way. It's true, though."

"Well, it's not like I disagree any," Ryan laughed. "So, how's the wonder couple doing?"

"Gazing into each other's eyes. And people say we're obvious."

"Just 'cause I can't keep my hands off you," Ryan agreed. "What's a little friendly touching between guys?"

"That depends where you're touching, I suppose."

"You know where I'd like to touch—"

"I'm in public, dear. I don't want to get all… flustered."

"I was just going to say your tummy. You're ticklish."

"I am not!"

Ryan laughed and Nick grinned. Ryan had a great laugh.

Richard sat down at the bar next to him. "Heading off to have phone sex soon?"

"Heading off to cry in your beer soon?" Nick shot back.

"Yes, probably. I hate these things."

Nick sighed. "Babe, I gotta run, I have to save a friend from getting drunk and making an ass of himself."

"Richard?"

"How'd you guess?"

"I'm not going to make an ass of myself," Richard sulked.

"History would indicate otherwise," Nick answered. "I'll call you back tonight…" He paused. "Ryan?" Nothing. "Ryan?"

"I—I gotta run. Loveyoubye!"

Ryan hung up and Nick frowned. How very odd.

Somehow, the press hadn't realized why it was that Alejandro and Chris always sat together at events. When asked, they claimed they were best friends, which was basically true, and they managed to keep their hands to themselves, if only barely. So the press seemed to accept it, which was lucky, because the two of them refused to be separated at events.

Alejandro glanced over at their waiter, who was bringing out appetizers, rushing back and forth from the tables to the kitchen. Chris followed his gaze. "You're staring," he said.

"I am not."

"He's cute."

"He looks like my cousin," Alejandro said.

"Then why are you staring?"

"I am not staring, I just thought I recognized him."

"Do you?"

"No," Alejandro said. "Why, would it bother you if I was staring at him?"

"A little bit," Chris agreed.

"But you're the one who thinks cheating is no big deal."

"Alejandro, man, I didn't mean that. I just wanted Richard to stop… Well, look at him." He gestured to the bar, where Richard was drinking a beer. "You know that's not his first of the night, he was buzzed before we even got here, and he drank, like, half a bottle of wine in the limo."

Alejandro nodded. "You're right. I'm starting to worry about him."

"Yeah, everyone is. You think the press is gonna notice?"

"They haven't noticed us or Nick and Ryan, so how observant could they be?" Alejandro asked. "We should talk to him about it sometime. When he's sober."

"Yeah, that could take awhile."

"I know. We should try and… help him out."

"Yeah."

"I don't think he'd like that, though," Alejandro continued. "He's been really angry at us lately."

"Yeah, I noticed." Chris sighed. "I don't mean to piss him off, I just… like you."

"Exactly. We shouldn't feel bad about being together."

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Feel bad about being together?"

"Never." Alejandro smiled a little bit. "I feel bad that Richard feels bad, but… You're worth it."

"Well, gee." Chris laughed, and the waiter walked over with their appetizers on a tray.

"Sorry for the wait," he apologized. "We never were told how many people would be attending, we ended up a little bit understaffed."

Chris shrugged.

"Don't worry about it," Alejandro said. "We're patient."

"Thanks," the waiter laughed. "If only everyone was!" He set down the appetizer and two plates.

"Gracias," Alejandro said.

"De nada," the waiter answered, and smiled a little bit. "So you really speak Spanish?"

Alejandro nodded.

"Uh, cool. I'd better… If you need anything, let me know," he said, and hurried off.

Alejandro watched him go, while Chris picked up a fork and prepared to dig in. He glanced up. "So," he said in a sing-song voice, "flirting with the help again, are we?"

"Excuse me?"

"Kidding, I know you weren't. He looks like your cousin."

"Yeah." Alejandro glanced down, then up at Chris. "Um, 'the help'?"

"What?"

"That's a little bit demeaning, don't you think?"

"It's just a phrase," Chris answered.

"Yeah, well, I guess when you're rich and white, maybe it is."

"Wait, what?" Chris said. "I think we're having an argument here that I didn't realize. What?"

"We're not having an argument, I just wanted to point it out."

"Point out what?"

"That it's demeaning."

"It's not demeaning; it's his job. He gets paid for it."

"Yeah, well, my aunt cleans houses for a living and I think she'd be offended."

"Alejandro, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry, okay? God."

"Fine, whatever. I just thought you'd want to know you sounded spoiled."

"I sounded what!"

"Chris," Alejandro said quietly, "there are other people around, so if you could not scream…"

"You think I'm spoiled?"

"I didn't say that! I said you sounded spoiled."

"Maybe I'm not spoiled, maybe you're just sensitive."

"And now, you're acting spoiled, too." Alejandro shook his head. "I don't want to fight with you, Chris—"

"Then why are you?"

"You're fighting with me, I just wanted to make a point. Point made, now I'm done."

"I can't believe you think I'm spoiled."

"Oh for the love of… Chris, you are spoiled, you always have been. I don't care about that, I just don't like it when you're so dismissive of everyone you think is beneath you."

"So now I'm spoiled and I'm racist."

"I didn't say anything about race! You're classist."

"Oh, well that's so much better."

"You're not always. But you can be, you forget that other people deserve as much respect as you do."

"You've been wanting to get this off of your chest for awhile, huh?"

"Yes, actually," Alejandro snapped. "I didn't want to fight about it. But yes, since I did not grow up rich and white, I noticed it, and yes, it pisses me off sometimes."

"Yeah, well sometimes you piss me off too. You're so smug—"

"I'm smug?"

"You think you're perfect because you're smarter than everyone else, but no one likes a know-it-all, Alex."

Alejandro looked a little stunned, but covered it up quickly. "I'm not smarter than everyone else, I'm just smarter than you."

"Screw you."

"Not tonight." Alejandro stood up. "Look, let's talk about this later, okay? I don't think this is the best place for our first big fight."

"What, you've been keeping track of the little ones?"

"Chris, just… shut up. We'll talk later."

"Bye," Chris snapped as Alejandro walked away, leaving their appetizer uneaten on the table. It wasn't until Alejandro had disappeared into the crowd that he realized he had no idea why they were fighting, but that didn't make him any less angry.

Nick was worried. He had text messaged Ryan four times, and hadn't gotten an answer, and had rushed out to the coat room to call him, but had gotten his voicemail. And it wasn't like Ryan would have turned off his phone—Ryan always had it on and always had it with him. He just wasn't answering.

He pocketed the phone when his watch beeped, telling him it was time to go join the rest of the band for the toast. They were supposed to thank everyone who'd helped them with the album and the promotion. He sighed. He didn't want to do it; it wasn't that he wasn't grateful for their success and everyone who'd helped them, it was that he didn't want to do anything until he knew what had happened to Ryan.

But Richard and Chris usually did most of the talking anyway, so no one would notice if he was a bit upset, he assumed. Until he walked in and saw the rest of the band.

Richard was draped over Chris, clearly a little too drunk to stand up straight. He'd never been too drunk for an event before, Nick noted to himself. That was really not good at all.

CJ's arms were crossed. "You," he hissed at Nick, as Nick walked up to them. "Die."

"What did I do?"

"Laura."

"Oh. I thought you'd like her."

"She has the personality of a blow up doll," CJ said, his words slurring slightly. Fabulous; CJ was drunk too. "And I know blow up dolls!"

"Are you sure you want to tell me that?" Nick sighed. He glanced over at Alejandro, who was leaning against the wall and glaring at no one in particular. But he was definitely glaring, and since he and Chris weren't anywhere near each other, and weren't making googly eyes at each other, that was not a good sign either.

He looked over at Chris, who looked less drunk than Richard, but almost as angry as Alejandro. He was definitely not entirely sober, though.

"So," Nick said. "Who's gonna give the toast?"

CJ hiccupped and Richard fell back against the wall, laughing like a madman. Alejandro stared at the floor and Chris shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Okay, so, me, then," Nick sighed. "You're all cut off from the bar for the rest of the night. Seriously."

Richard giggled. "Doesn't matter, I gotta flask."

"Oh, well that's healthy. You get an intervention as soon as everyone else is sober enough to do it. Alejandro…"

"I can help," Alejandro said. "I don't feel like talking, though."

"You mean you're not going to try and sound smart on stage?" Chris snapped.

"Unlike some people, when I sound smart, it's not an act."

"Whoa, okay, that's enough of that," Nick said. "Let's go give this toast, I'll do it and you guys just stand there and don't fall down and don't fight with each other, and then we'll go home and sober up and this will all seem like a bad dream, right?"

He didn't get a resounding chorus of agreement, but Richard draped an arm over Chris and they started towards the podium, Richard stumbling as he walked. CJ glared at Nick. "You die," he said.

"I really don't need this," Nick muttered, and fell into step, Alejandro following him.

Nick walked up to the podium and everyone stood behind him. Richard managed to lean on Chris and make it look casual, instead of looking like he'd fall over if he didn't have someone to hold him up. Chris was Chris, and he smiled for the cameras as soon as people were watching him. CJ and Alejandro also both forced smiles onto their faces, though not quite as convincingly. And Alejandro and Chris were standing as far away from each other as they could manage.

"Well, uh," Nick said into the microphone. "We just really wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who's helped us out. We're so excited by how well this album is doing, we can't even put it into words. But we really want to thank the great people at Boogie for supporting us, and all of our fans, and all of the people who've done sound mixing and recording and helped us get this whole thing together… But we especially want to thank Bryan Denton, the best manager in the world. Right, guys?"

"Right!" Chris said brightly.

"I don't have a glass up here, whoops," Nick continued, half-afraid that Richard would pull out his flask. "But if everyone else could raise a glass, we'd like to toast. To our manager, Denton."

Everyone watching followed his suggestion and toasted, and up in the front, Denton grinned at him. And thankfully, no one seemed to notice that the five band members looked less than thrilled.

Nick hurried off as soon as he could to get a look at his cellphone. No missed calls. Damn.

"Would you get off of me?" Chris demanded, and pushed Richard off his shoulder. Richard laughed and collapsed back against the wall of the hallway.

"Sorry, I just… Didn't want to trip with people watching…"

"Well, maybe if you didn't drink so much that wouldn't be a problem."

"Maybe if you'd drink a little more you'd see it my way," Richard countered, and produced the flask from his pocket. "You like gin?"

"I drink gin," Chris said, and accepted the flask, then downed a mouthful.

Richard glanced around. This was a back hall, not too far from the kitchen; the only people who walked by were waiters and chefs who were on break. Somewhere behind them was the rest of the party and the rest of the hotel where it was being held.

"So you'n Alejandro got inna fight?"

"Yeah. I don't want to talk about it."

"That sucks. I mean, 'cause you gotta, like, love him but if he's mad at you that's bad."

"Thanks, genius, I didn't realize that."

"You're mean when you're mad. Gimme my flask."

Chris handed it over and Richard took another drink.

"It was such a stupid fight. He thinks I'm spoiled."

"You are," Richard said. "See, I'm too drunk to lie. You are but we love you anyway 'cause you're…"

"Yes?"

"I dunno, you're rotten but we like keeping you around."

"Thanks, this is really making me feel better. Give me that." Chris reached for Richard's flask again. "I dunno, I said some pretty rotten things to him, too."

"Maybe he deserved 'em."

Chris almost choked on his gin. "You think?"

"Well, no one's perfect, not even Ale… Alejan… Alex."

"That's what I said! He thinks he's so great, just because he got good grades. No one cares about grades in real life."

"An' he thinks I've gotta drinking problem."

"You do have a drinking problem," Chris said. "Ever since Shawna…"

"I ain't gotta problem, I just like it. 'Cause it's better than getting nervous all the time an' throwing up. At least this way I know why I'm puking."

"Yeah, I guess." Chris downed some more of the gin, then handed it back to Richard. "We've never had a real fight before."

"I never fought with Shawna but she still cheated on me," Richard said. "An' I loved her. That's the worst. If I didn't love her I wouldn't be so upset an' if I wasn't so upset I wouldn't drink so much."

"You should stop," Chris said. "It's not healthy… we're worried."

"Who, you an' Alex?"

"Shut up." Chris reached for the flask. "Give me that, you're drunk enough."

"An' you're barely drunk at all!"

"Exactly." Chris paused, then chugged the rest of the flask, which was a fair amount. Even Richard could see it when it hit him a few seconds later; Chris fell back against the wall and almost fell down it, too. "Wow, that's… strong."

"Yeah, I know."

"I can't believe him, you know? He thinks he's so perfect he can just tell me what to say and what to think 'cause I'm not smart enough."

"She was perfect an' she cheated on me. She broke my heart!"

"He's… he's… what's the word?"

"What word?"

"The word for when someone… when someone thinks he's always right. 'Cause that's what he is. But he's not always right an' I was just joking! He can't take a joke…"

"She always thought I was calling her fat."

"He always treats me like I'm dumb, but I'm not! Am I?"

"Nah," Richard said, leaning over to ruffle Chris's hair, and bursting into giggles as he did so. "You got pretty hair, Chris."

Chris laughed. "Man, I want another drink. You think Nick really got us cut off?"

"I bet Denton did 'cause he asked me if I was drunk before the toast and I said yes, 'cause I wasn't thinking, 'cause I'm drunk."

"Good job, Rich. God, I've never been mad at him before! But he really does think I'm stupid, doesn't he? I need a drink."

"Do we have rooms here?"

"What?"

"In the hotel? 'Cause I bet the rooms have bars."

"You think? We have rooms, Denton said we'd be here late so he just got us rooms."

"I bet we do. Let's go get something to drink from a room."

"Okay," Chris agreed, and took a few steps forward. "Man, walking's hard."

"I know, I usually lean on you."

"Yeah, you do," Chris said. "Why me?"

"'Cause you got the prettiest hair," Richard said, and he was drunk enough that it seemed to make some kind of sense. And Chris didn't disagree, so the two of them staggered through the hallway together.

Alejandro tugged on CJ's shoulder, and CJ jumped, then looked relieved when he saw who it was. "Thank god, I thought you might be my date, Laura the Undead."

"Uh…" Alejandro said, as they started towards the main hotel lobby. "Have you seen Chris?"

"Why? Don't know where your snugglebunny is?"

"We got into a fight earlier," Alejandro mumbled. "I was being kind of… I blew it out of proportion, I just want to say I'm sorry."

"Aww, how sweet."

"Have you seen him?"

"Awhile ago, yeah. He was going to take Richard up to bed before he passed out on the floor."

Alejandro nodded. "Thanks," he said, and hurried off to get Richard's room number. He felt awful; he knew he hadn't been entirely wrong before, but he also realized he hadn't been very nice, and the fight was at least half his fault. And he did care about Chris, and wanted to make sure Chris knew that.

Richard's room was up a few floors and Alejandro's stomach was in knots by the time he stepped out of the elevator. He'd never fought with Chris before, and he had no idea how to get past the fight. He hoped that a simple sorry would be enough, but if Chris was really upset…

He knocked on Richard's door and there was no answer, but the door fell open a crack. It hadn't been shut tight. He sighed; Richard was probably passed out, and would need someone to make sure he was okay.

"Yo, Rich?" he called. "Hey…"

He stepped into the room and saw that one of the lights was on dimly.

"Alejandro?" Richard asked, panicked, and a moment later Alejandro saw why.

Chris and Richard were in bed together. A sheet was pulled up to their waists, but it didn't make much of a difference; neither one had a shirt on, and Alejandro could see two pairs of pants left on the floor.

Chris was staring at him.

Alejandro stared back.

"It's not what you think—" Richard started, but didn't have a chance to explain.

Alejandro turned around and left, slamming the door shut after him.