Page 45 of Gabriel's Album

“Have you been able to do much sightseeing while you’ve been in New York?” David asks.

Harrison nods at him as he sits forward to be closer to the microphone in front of him. “Yeah, we had a day off yesterday. Sebastian and I went to Times Square.”

“He makes it sound like we had a date or something,” Sebastian laughs. “But Heather was with us too.”

“That’s your girlfriend, right, Harrison?” Claire asks.

“Correct,” he answers.

“What about the rest of you? Are you seeing anyone?” Claire looks directly at me when she asks this, and I realize she’s asking me specifically.

Fuck. I shift uncomfortably while I think about how to reply, then force myself to smile back at her.

“I think Sebastian’s seeing enough women for all of us,” I say and manage to give a casual laugh.

Sebastian gasps dramatically. “What are you implying, Gabriel Knight?”

“I think we all know what he’s implying, Seb—that you date so many women there’s nobody left for him or me,” Hayden teases him.

David laughs and says, “There could be some truth to that, right? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of you with the same woman twice, Sebastian.”

“Well, that’s not true. I’m sure I’ve been pictured with Heather more than once,” Sebastian objects.

Harrison bursts out laughing. “You can’t use Heather as a line of defense like that.”

“Can’t I?” Sebastian asks Harrison with a grin on his face.

“No, you can’t. Heather doesn’t count,” Harrison tells him.

“Oh, I’m definitely telling her you said that,” Hayden grins, and Harrison gives him a playful shove while they both laugh.

Sebastian turns to smirk at David. “Fine, sinceHarrisonsays Heather doesn’t count, I guess you probably haven’t, and you probably never will. I like beautiful women and beautiful women like me. There are a lot of beautiful women out there, so I couldn’t possibly be so selfish as to deny any of them my company.”

I roll my eyes and shake my head at his comment. Claire notices my action and looks at me with open curiosity.

“Do you have an opinion on that, Gabriel? Am I sensing some tension between you guys?” she asks me.

“Oh god, no,” I laugh, then look away from her and over to Sebastian. “It’s just that we’ve been having this conversation with Seb for over a decade.”

“You met as teenagers, didn’t you?” David asks.

We rehash the same information that every interviewer wants to ask us about how we all met at a music camp in our teens and have been friends since. Then they play our latest single, “Midnight Rebellion” while Kendall brings us food from McDonald's, and I scarf down the muffin and coffee during the break.

As the interview continues, I notice that Claire is asking me more and more questions directly.

“So, tell us, Gabriel, where do you get your inspiration for your songs?” she asks near the end of the interview.

“Life in general, I guess.” I shrug my shoulders because I’m not sure what else to say.

“You’re so talented, though. You write a lot of the songs yourself, don’t you?” she prods.

“Not really.” I force myself to smile politely at her. “We write together most of the time.”

I gesture to my friends, who are looking at me with clear amusement, and I know they’re going to give me shit about this DJ flirting with me on air.

“Yes, I meant the band. All of you. Cruise Control.” Claire blushes and backtracks quickly before casting her gaze to my friends and asking, “You write all of your songs yourselves, don’t you?”

“We do,” Hayden says and smiles kindly at her.

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