Disclaimer: Really? The show is 2 1/2 years old and I am just expressing this story I want to tell. I do not own I'm In the Band

After dinner and watching some random cable show about whatever in the living room, Bleed mentions that he's going to go check up on how Derek is doing, since I told the rest of them what Derek was doing, careful not to mention our discussion about Bleed himself.

Once the old lead guitarist left the living room, since I would be sure he was out of earshot, I am prepared to ask Burger and Ash about what Derek is hiding from me.

But I then realize that I don't have enough courage to bring the question out of my mind into reality. I do remember being nervous about asking this to the two band members, I guess my conscience is tugging at the corners of my mind so that I feel guilty about asking them about this. Whatever he is hiding, that secret should be kept to Derek himself.

But I ignore that and work up whatever bravery to ask Burger and Ash this; my question won't hurt anyone right?

"Ash and Burger," I start, and I know that I can't chicken out right now. "Why is Derek crazier about not letting Bleed stay than you two?"

Ash and Burger look at each for what seems like forever, until Burger lets out a breath and says: "Little man, I don't think that you should know about it."

"I knew that there was a side to this story that Derek wouldn't confess to me." I think I mutter, but I said it out loud for the drummer and bass guitarist to hear without knowing it.

"So that's what you and Derek were talking about before dinner!" Ash realized.

"Yes." I admitted, and let Ash pour guilt in me.

"And that's why he wasn't present at dinner!" he continued.

"That is true."

Burger leaned forward in the chair he was sitting in. "What did you ask Derek?"

There was no point in hiding anything anymore. "The same question I just asked you guys,"

"What question?" Ash asked. I told him again without a second thought because we all expect that from him.

"Ohhh…" he said.

"Why do you three guys try to avoid telling me anything? What side of this story are you guys not confessing to me?" I then ask them both.

Burger and Ash look at each other again, as if debating whether or not to tell me the piece of the truth Derek didn't admit in our interrogation.

Burger lets out another sigh, but I don't think he realized he was holding this one. He gets up out of his chair and tells both me and Ash to go to the garage, I follow Burger and I know that Ash is following me from behind. Whatever Burger will tell me, I know that this is big since he is taking me to the garage, where we know that the possibility of Bleed and Derek eavesdropping on us is low.

Once we are in the garage, Burger tells me to sit on the couch. I do it without a second thought because I know in the back of my mind that I will probably be really shocked and surprised by whatever he will admit, and I will learn the whole story.

"Little man, there is something that we are about to admit that is going to be really big, and we just want you to be open-minded about this and not think differently about Derek." Burger starts, sitting to my left side and Ash does the same but to my right side.

"I understand and I promise to be open-minded with whatever you will confess to me." I tell them, but I am not even fully convinced by my statement.

Burger takes in a deep breath. "Derek and Bleed once dated each other."

Okay, that was definitely NOT what I was expecting. I personally expected that he and Bleed were really close friends that just got separated when high school ended, because Bleed didn't join the band until Iron Weasel's fifth soundtrack, and stayed until after the seventh one when Bleed left for personal reasons, according to what I read online. And also from what I have read about the band, Bleed and Derek were really close friends.

"Little man?" Burger drags me out of my tiny reverie.

"Sorry, I guess it's just shock about this." I tell him. First, initial shock, and now I feel the confusion of that statement.

"It's just, there was never any mention about Derek and Bleed ever dating, and I basically know Iron Weasel's history from its origin, and everything I read said that Derek and Bleed were longtime friends."

Ash speaks up for the first time. "That was just a cover story and they never were friends for a long time. Bleed was randomly standing by the band van after the last concert we had in Japan for our fourth album and third worldwide tour. Derek and Bleed decided to keep their relationship under the radar because being gay back in the nineties was big and you were looked down on in society if you confessed it."

"Makes sense." I murmur. "And let me guess, when Bleed left Iron Weasel he also broke up with Derek?"

"Correct." Burger tells me. "According to Derek, Bleed privately talked to him in our hotel and broke up with him there. But that is all Derek ever mentions to anyone about it, and we both know that we shouldn't push him about it because he was so traumatized that he didn't come out of the hotel room the entire day afterward, until we had to leave to go back to LA and record our eighth album."

That is a lot to process. Derek Jupiter; one of the greatest rockers ever, dated the original lead guitarist of Iron Weasel. There is a part of me that doesn't want to believe this at all, but after thinking about everything that's happened today I can see how that is true. Derek to continue denying anything to Bleed and barely allowing him to stay at my house for the night, since I didn't have the heart to let my idol sleep in his car.

But now, I feel a twinge of suspicion about Bleed suddenly coming back, but that's when I also realize that I am so tired that I can barely keep track of my racing thoughts.

"Well, thanks for telling me about that guys." I say, standing up.

"Just promise to not tell either Derek or Bleed about this conversation, they would not be happy to learn we had a discussion about this." Burger pleads before standing up.

"I promise." I solemnly tell him, and I truly mean it.

"Okay, get some sleep man." Ash said, getting off the couch and standing by Burger.

I smile and nodded yes. The uneasy feeling about the original lead guitarist is still there, but it is so faint that I barely even register it as I absentmindedly go through my everyday process of getting ready for bed.

After I brushed my teeth, I walk down the hallway towards my messy bedroom, and I see Burger fast asleep on the couch and Ash peacefully sleeping on the chair that he was on earlier.

I smile at this and I head down to my bedroom.

But when I am by Iron Weasel's room, I pause. I feel tempted to open and door and tell Derek everything that I learned and that I understand why he was acting the way he was earlier. But I don't have the energy to open the door.

I reach my bedroom and just crash onto my bed, barely registering that I have fallen asleep the second I touch the mattress.