Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter Forty-Nine

-Brooklyn's POV-

The band hadn't ended like I'd originally worried about, but somehow, this was even worse. The flat felt strangely quiet and empty without Andy and Jack there. Liv had explained how Andy had gone missing, and then what had really happened on the day that I had found them – The reality of which had hit me right in the chest and taken my breath away.

Blair had FaceTimed us and said that he had some news to break to us, and that he'd be there in a couple of hours. With the way that things had been going lately, I couldn't imagine that it was going to be anything good.

The only positive thing was that Stacey had said she wanted to try and make our relationship work, even over the distance, but that had just made us parting all the more difficult – She'd given me one last kiss, and made me promise to keep the bracelet on. I had, and I looked down at it now, adjusting it slightly.

I glanced around the room – Rye was sitting on the edge of Jack's bunk, jiggling his legs nervously. Mikey was quietly whispering into Liv's ear, trying to convince her to have something to eat. She pushed his away, insisting that she wasn't hungry and that she had a headache. Undeterred, Mikey helped her lay down and then moved to sit beside me.

Eventually, the silence became too much – "I'm going to do a live.ly, okay?" I asked. I looked at Liv. "I won't be too loud. But I feel, like, the Roadies need to know we're, you know, alive or something." I forced a small laugh, knowing that there was nothing funny about it.

When nobody said anything against it, I took that as an okay and opened the app. For the first time, I felt a little nervous as I started the livestream and watched the number of people go up.

"Hey guys," I said, then paused, not sure what to say next. Should I continue on like everything was normal, or make up some excuse as to why we'd been so inactive to ease their minds? "So, we just got back from visiting our families. What have you guys been up to today?' I decided with something in the middle. I scrolled through the comments that were rapidly coming in.

"Where are the others boys?" I read off one that was repeated several times. "Uhm, here's Mikey." I switched the camera to show him. He waved. "And there's Rye." He covered his face, and I switched it back to me. "Andy and Jack haven't arrived yet...Rye died and was replaced by a lookalike: A conspiracy theory." I had to laugh at that one.

"Rye, is that really you?" I asked, creeping up on him and tackling him with a hug. Surprisingly, he didn't push me off, and instead allowed me to continue the embrace.

"Hmm, I mean, I'm pretty sure," he said once we parted.

"He's lying," I whispered as I walked back to my bed. "I can't believe you guys found out so quickly. This is actually his identical twin, John." Rye threw a pillow at me, and I ducked, laughing. "You can tell because he's much more violent," I said dramatically, using the pillow to prop myself up.

"Thanks, pal." Upon seeing my smug satisfaction, he got up and yanked it back out from under me. "Meanie." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Meanie," he mocked me, speaking in a higher falsetto than usual.

"I don't speak like that!" I called out in defense, but I was happy that we were falling back into our usual banterous routine. It had been a while.

"Yes you do, shut up Brook." I read off the comments. "Well then." I grimaced. "Siding with John, I see."

"I don't have an identical twin named John!" Rye yelled out, and I snickered.

"He's just saying that to save me," I said. "Nobody's supposed to know, so sshhh."

"Yeah, the name of his identical twin is actually Steve," Mikey added.

"Oh no, don't you start, too!" Rye said, tackling him. And, for just a second, things felt as if nothing had ever changed - Like there was a possibility that we could really return to normal.

"I'm sorry I look so awful today guys," I said, noting my face in the small screen.

"It's okay," Rye said while Mikey simultaneously said, "You're beautiful, baby," and blew me a kiss. I pretended to catch it and send him one back. He winked.

I looked back down at the comments before reporting, "I don't know, Mikey, the Roadies don't seem to think so." And for some reason, even though I knew that it was probably all for jokes, the fact that most of the comments that I was seeing were negative hurt a little more than it usually would've. I cleared my throat, trying to push the feeling away.

"Ask me questions, guys," I said, putting on a small smile. "Favorite color? Green. Why am I so annoying? I dunno. Born that way, I guess." I tried to make a joke out of it. "Why have we been so inactive? Uhm, well, we've been busy lately and I know that I ran out of 4G," I said, trying to use a believable excuse. I looked over at Mikey for confirmation, and he gave me a thumbs up. I tried to focus on the livestream again, quietly reading what was being said.

"Wow. You guys sure are being mean today," I whispered, unsure of why it was hitting me so hard. Maybe because everything had been so messed up lately, and I had been looking for some sort of solace within our fans. I could feel the positive exterior becoming harder to maintain.

"Uhm, Mikey, would you like to take over this?" I asked, and, sensing that something was wrong, he took it, shooting me a confused look.

I simply slipped out of bed and left to go to the kitchen, as if going to grab something to eat had been my plan all along. I wasn't hungry, though, so I instead just stood there, soaking in the bad feeling that things had gone all wrong, more than I had even begun to realize.

A few seconds later, the door swung back open and Rye was by my side. Wordlessly, he wrapped me into a hug, and I felt myself begin to cry.

"I'm scared," I confessed.

"Me too," he sighed. "Me too."