“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kaj said, a note of defensiveness creeping into his voice.
“You’re different.”
“Different how?” Val asked, interest piqued by the potential for drama.
“Like, you still tell us to fuck off from time to time, but you’re less prickly.” Aksel’s smirk widened into a full grin. “You’re getting laid, aren’t you?” he threw in Kaj’s direction.
Kaj choked on his water, which made everyone else crack up. Kaj felt heat rising to his face, a mixture of embarrassment and anger washing over him. He risked a glance at Noah.
“Oh my fucking god! It’s true!” Val wheezed. “How did I not see it? Your resting bitch face is completely gone.”
“Is it a man or a woman?” Markus asked, then waved his hand dismissively. “You know what? I don’t care. Just let me live vicariously through you. Having my girlfriend thousands of kilometers away is so damn hard.”
“Actually…” Noah cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. His fingers stopped their nervous tapping as he clenched his fists on the table. “I’d prefer if my sex life wasn’t discussed over dessert.”
Kaj shifted uncomfortably on his seat. They had agreed to this, yes, but he wasn’t expecting Noah to be so blunt about it.
“Wait, what?” Val’s head snapped in Kaj’s direction, then back to Noah. “You two are fucking?”
“Yeah.” Kaj nodded.
“For how long?”
“A month or so.”
“What the fuck? How did I not see it?” Aksel chuckled.
“Because you’re not as smart as you think you are,” Kaj snapped.
“Sit and spin,” the guitarist said as he flipped him off.
“But why keep a secret from us?” Ben wondered.
“We weren’t hiding anything,” Kaj lied, his defenses rising. “We just weren’t... advertising.”
“Until someone did it for us,” Noah added, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.
“What do you mean?” Xander asked, his tone filled with concern. The bassist didn’t care about what anyone did with their personal lives, but he was probably worried about how Kaj and Noah’s relationship could affect the band and their mental health. Being dissected like a piece of meat online was never fun.
“Photos of us together were leaked a few days ago,” Noah continued, his gaze fixed somewhere in the middle of the table.
“What kind of photos?”
“Nothing explicit,” Kaj cut in.
Xander crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking slightly under his weight. “Does Niels know?”
Noah nodded. “He’s talked with the reporter and his lawyer, but it doesn’t matter now. It’s spread like wildfire on a forum.”
“That’s fucked up,” Val said, shaking his head.
“Fucking vultures,” Markus muttered, shaking his head.
“Always looking for the next headline, the next scandal,” Frederik added, his voice low and controlled but with an undercurrent of anger. “It’s disgusting.”
“Look, this sucks big time,” Xander started, “but for what it’s worth, it’ll blow over eventually. Two weeks from now, someone else will do something more interesting or stupid, and people will forget.”
“Yeah.” Aksel nodded in agreement. “It’s not the first time that’s happened to us.”
