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Jeremy’s POV

                “Panic! At The Disco!” the host yelled, announcing the second place winners.

                Hayley, Zac, Josh, Katie, Amy, and I all gaped in silence. Paramore had won first place. We had a record deal.

                Sweet.

                Just at that moment, someone slammed into me. “Jerm, he has a girlfriend!” my sister wailed.

                “Who? Jon?” I asked, bewildered. “Jon has a girlfriend?”

                “Yes!”

                “No freakin’ way,” I said in disbelief. Because I didn’t believe that. “He likes you. I mean, have you seen the way he looks at you?”

                “Her name is Violet, and she’s nice!” Ciara spat, making ‘nice’ sound like a bad thing. In this case, maybe it was. I blinked, not knowing what to say. Ciara blinked, trying to hold back tears.

                “And our first place winners are… Paramooooooooooore!” the host screamed into the microphone, snapping my attention back. “Why don’t you guys come on up here?”

                As the Farro brothers and Hayley were starting to push their way through the crowd, Katie gasped. “I think I see Pete!” she said, and took off in his direction.

                Hayley’s bright hair was disappearing, too. “Come on, Jeremy!” she yelled. Although I couldn’t hear her over all the noise, I could read her lips.

                “Stay here with Amy for a sec, okay?” I told Ciara. “I’ll be right back.”

Katie’s POV

                “Wentz! I’ve been looking all over for you!” I called to Pete as I slowed down.

                He turned around. “Hey Katie, check this out. I just signed these guys!”

                “W-what?!” I stammered. Paramore was onstage at the moment. This couldn’t possibly be…

                I stepped out from behind Pete so I could see the people he was talking to. It was Panic! At The Disco. The second place winners. This wasn’t making sense.

                “To my label, Decaydance?” Pete explained, like it was obvious. “They just got a record deal.”

                I stared hard at the four guys, who looked like miniature Blink-182 clones. The expressions on their faces all screamed ‘starstruck’. They were so… amateur. And they hadn’t even had to work hard for the deal they had just gotten. They hadn’t even won first place!

                “But Pete,” I hissed, so that only Pete could hear. “These are the second place winners. Weren’t you gonna give the deal to the first placers?”

                “Huh? I never said anything about that,” Pete said, giddy smile still on his face. “But did you hear these guys? They were amazing! Their sound is so new, so fresh; I think they could go places with that.”

                “They were pretty good,” I said, my smile feeling unbelievably forced. Which it was. I turned to the guys. “Congratulations.”

                They beamed back at me, not bothering to ask who I was because they were just too shocked.

                 “I’m gonna… go now,” I said to Pete uncertainly, turning to leave.

                “See ya,” Pete replied. “Oh! Katie, there’s gonna be a party at your house after this. Mikey told me to tell you. We planned it yesterday, but you were out all day and all night. I told you about the fireworks already, didn’t I?” He was talking really fast again, something he did when he was excited.

                “Yes you did, Pete.” I rolled my eyes. “Bye.”

                I found Paramore at the same place I had left them earlier. They looked so happy…

                I wasn’t going to tell them. I just couldn’t. This was all my fault.

                And I guess it showed on my face as I walked over to them as slowly as possible, because Josh instantly came over and asked me what was wrong.

                I wanted to lie and say I hadn’t actually found Pete, but I couldn’t lie to Josh. So I just stayed quiet.

Ciara’s POV

                Okay. So he has a girlfriend. So what? I was getting over it. Until I bumped into him on my way out of the bathroom.

                “Hey, Ciara!” he called. He was alone this time. “Funny how we keep bumping into each other.”

                I smiled, nervous. “Yeah.” The fact that he was taken pissed me off. Now I couldn’t talk to him without the awkwardness. Not that it was awkward for him. Just for me. It sucked.

                “So, what’s up now?”

                “Nothing, really. I’m happy,” I replied, putting too much emphasis on the ‘happy’. Realizing this, I expounded on it. “My brother’s band just won first place and got a record deal!”

                “That’s amazing! And strange,” Jon added. “My band got signed too. By Pete Wentz.”

                He covered his mouth after that last bit of information, apparently not supposed to have given it out. It was adorable. Until his girlfriend came over.

                “Awww, you look so cute when you do that!” Violet singsonged. And I quickly got over the cuteness of Embarrassed Jon.

                Which made me think… what the hell was going on? Pete signed two bands? Sounded unlikely.

                “Hey, uh… I was just going…” I told Jon, hoping it didn’t seem weird that I always left right after Violet arrived.

                “Actually, we have to go too, Vi,” he said to her. Great. Now it was awkward for both of us.

                “Okay! See ya, Ciara!” Violet called to me brightly. I was already walking away.

                I dashed back to my group of friends and pulled Katie aside. “Katie. What the fuck is going on?”

                “Um. Uh.” Katie swallowed, looking like a deer in headlights. “What are you talking about?”

                “Jon’s band got signed by Pete. I thought Paramore was supposed to,” I spelled it out for her.

                “I think… all of this was just a misunderstanding.” She tried to leave, but I held her back.

                “What do you mean, a misunderstanding?”

                “Ciara, I really don’t know! I went to find him and he was just standing there talking to them. Could you, like… not talk about this right now?” she pleaded.

                I raised an eyebrow and stayed silent. Katie was acting really strange.

                “I’m sorry, Ciara,” she apologized. Good. “It’s really stressing me out, too. But Pete’s having a party at my house later. He could change his mind before them.”

                It sounded unlikely, but I could tell she was frazzled. “Okay… I guess.”

                Katie sighed, glad to escape.

Hayley’s POV

                Text message sent to Bekah 11:11 pm:

BEKAH!! i miss you, you little bitch. leaving me here in this stupid town with no people except for… nah. i’ll tell you when you get back. it’s huge – in a bad way. aside from that, nothing new here except a RECORD DEAL! you should have been here. it was crazy. damn you. you probably don’t even have your phone right now. we need to have a sleepover. love you. sorry if this message didn’t make sense. you know me.  --haylerrrrrs

                The 11:11 in the corner of my phone’s screen caught my eye. I wished for the usual – Josh.

                Less than ten seconds later, he was standing right in front of me. My heart did the usual – a whole bunch of weird flips before finally sinking.

                “Hug!” Josh said, a big grin on his face.

                I practically melted into his arms, something I hadn’t been able to do in a while. But there was no sign of Katie anywhere near us.

                “Thank you so much, Hayls,” he said relatively quietly, since his mouth was right by my ear. “For being so fucking talented. You’re amazing. I’m sorry for being a jackass when you first suggested the song. You were right. You’re right about mostly everything. I know it’s been rough on all of us for the past week, and there’ll probably be more times like this in the future, but we got through this one and we’ll get through those. And thanks also… for being the only person I would ever do this with.” He shook his head. “What would I do without you?”

                I smiled blissfully, although I was trying to hide the effect he had on me. “You wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.”

                He laughed. “You’re probably right about that, too.”

                I sighed. “I love you way too much for my own good.”

                “I love you more!” he countered.

                I rolled my eyes. “Impossible.”

                “True!” he insisted.

                “No.”

                “Yes.”

                “No.”

                “Yes.”

                “No freaking way.”

                Suddenly, his lips were on my cheek. “Yes freaking way,” I felt him mumble.

                In less than a second, my heart sped up to about thrice its normal rate, sending my mind into overdrive while also cutting off any rational thought. I even considered the ridiculous possibility that he had broken up with Katie, but I knew that wasn’t true. Right now, I really, really, really wanted it to be.

                Not knowing what else to do, I just laughed and called him a loser.

                Josh laughed too. “I’m not a loser. I’m a winner. So are you!”

He held a hand up. We high-fived, grinning.

“I’m gonna go find Katie, she said we all had to leave in a couple minutes. There’s gonna be a party at her house.”

I nodded, and bravely kept the smile on my face until he had let go of me and turned away. Then I let my face fall, and got out my phone to send another text to Bekah.

Text message sent to Bekah 11:14 pm:

boys suck. remind me never to fall in love again. although you probably won’t have to, because i don’t think i’ll make it out of this one alive.