Well, that sure clears up a lot of confusion.

"When I walked out yesterday, I wanted to hunt Tony down and kill him, y'know? I hated him. Then I figured out that I had no place to even start looking, so I came back, and..."

"And you saw me kissing Benji."

"Yeah."

Paul's looking off into the distance, eyes focused on a spot on the wall or something. His arms are folded protectively over his stomach and his shoulders are hunched. He looks so vunerable, but I can't get past the fact the he hurt my brother's feelings. Twice. In a time period of about twenty minutes. "And you reacted like an asshole."

His hurt eyes meet mine. "Yeah. I did. And I'm sorry," he sniffs, and I know he's trying not to cry, "I knew if I didn't make a move soon someone would snap you up, but I never thought it would be your twin brother."

I just shrug. "Believe me, Paul, it would be a whole lot easier if he wasn't my twin brother. But then we wouldn't have that connection..."

"But... how? I mean, it's like... I just don't understand how you can feel like that about your brother."

I sigh. "I don't understand how you can feel like that about me. I don't understand how he can, either. There are some things you can't explain, Paul. They just... are."

He doesn't say anything, so I turn around and start to walk back to Benji's room. "Joel?"

I spin around on my heel. "Yeah?"

He looks at me with his puppy dog eyes. "I'm sorry. Make sure Benji knows that, too."

I grin, but it's weak. I do mean it, though. "As far as I'm concerned, we're cool. And I'll tell Benj you're sorry."

"You won't tell him what I told you, though, right?"

I hesitate for a moment at the idea of keeping a secret from my brother, and then shake my head. "No. He's got enough shit to deal with right now."

I turn back around and walk to Benji's room, smiling as I enter. He grins back at me, and his tears are stopped. He pats the bed beside him, gesturing for me to come sit with him, and I hop up on his bed. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my cheek. "Are things cool with Paul?"

I nod. "Yeah. Everything's cool. He's sorry for yesterday."

I don't think I need to say anything more - Benji's always been the more forgiving of the pair of us. I tend to hold grudges. But then, my anger when Dad left didn't even hold a candle to his.

I realize that my twin's been staring at me for a few seconds now, and I turn my head to look into his eyes. Big mistake. Damn mind reader. "You're holding out on me."

I laugh a little. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He wrinkles up his nose in disbelief, but changes the subject. "I know Cash was just a dog, but I really loved him."

I nod, slipping an arm around his shoulders and kissing his head. "I know you did, Benj. I did too."

He grins, and for a moment I'm aware that he looks so much like me right now. We both have black hair at the moment, and we're both minus hair gel and eye makeup. That's unusual. "I've already lost someone I love to that bastard," he sighs and squeezes me a little tighter, "I'm not going to lose you, too."

"No, Steve, Benji's just gotten out of hospital, we're not going to be doing any interviews."

Our manager is screeching in my ear about some interview we must do. We've only just left the police station, so I called Steve to let him know we were going to be staying in Baltimore for a couple of days, and I could almost see his eyes lighting up as he insisted that we go and see some people he knows there.

What's more, it's kinda hard to concentrate on what he's saying. Benji and I are sitting in the back of a police car, and his lips are attached to my neck. It's all I can do to keep myself from moaning into my cell. "Joel, do you have any idea how much they're willing to pay you for this?"

I roll my eyes. I don't care how much they're going to pay us, it's not worth it. I'd rather Benji got some time to rest. he pulls away from my neck, and I whimper involuntarily. "Let's do it, Joel."

I raise my eyebrows and hold the phone against my shoulder so I can't hear Steve's whining. "Do what? The interview?"

"Yeah. I'm fine, seriously."

I shrug. "Okay, Steve, you are so lucky Benji's cool with this."

He screeches praise in my ear for a few seconds, and then hangs up. I flip my phone closed and eye my brother, who's staring at my neck with some interest. "I have a hickey, don't I?"

He nods, grinning sheepishly. "And it's a bad one, isn't it?"

He nods again. "You set me up so they'd ask me about it in this interview, didn't you?"

Nod, grin. I'd kill him if he didn't look so damn adorable right now. "You asshole."

He smirks. "You love it."

"So, Joel, I have to ask, was it Hilary that gave you that big mark on your neck?"

I laugh and shoot Benji a stony glare as he snorts with laughter himself. "No!"

The interviewer taps her pen on her paper a couple of times as she chuckles. "See, 'cause I heard that you were dating Hilary, and your brother here was dating Lindsay Lohan."

Benji stares at the interviewer for a second and then bursts into hysterics. I can't help but laugh along with him. The idea is just so damn ridiculous. I mean, Hilary is great and everything, but Lindsay Lohan? Does anyone really want to date her? I swear to God, she's evil. "No, 'fraid not," I say, grinning like an idiot at my brother. I didn't think I'd see him laughing like this again for a while.

He's calmed down enough to speak now. "I'm glad you guys don't think I'm a paedophile like Joel, though. At least Lindsay isn't jailbait."

"You're jailbait!" I shoot back.

Okay, so admittedly, I didn't really think about what I was saying right then. Benji gapes at me for a moment, shocked that I could actually say that out loud, then magically covers for me. He's amazing at doing that kind of thing. "Uhhh... don't know what country you live in, Joel, but in America, a twenty-six year old man is not jailbait."

Unless he's your brother.

The interviewer just laughs, obviously not catching on. "Nice attempt at a comeback though, Joel."

I shrug. "Benji's always been better at being mean than me."

"Oh yeah? How so?"

Benji launches into some story about when we were kids and he'd decided to bleach my hair while I was sleeping, and I just smile as I watch him. He's always so enthusiastic when he talks about our childhood memories. Man, did my hair look horrible. I mean horrible.

Benji's just finished his story when my cell phone rings. "Excuse me just a minute," I say quickly, slipping off to the corner of the room.

The caller ID tells me it's Billy, so I flip the phone open. "Hey dude."

The voice that meets my ears is panicked. "He's got me, Joel."

Oh, God.

"Who's got you, Billy? Tony?"

Benji looks up from the couch. I hear him quickly tell the woman that the interview is over, and then he ushers me out the door as quickly as he can. "Yeah. He says," I hear Tony's voice in the background and then Billy sniffles, "he says if you don't tell him where you are, he'll kill me."

Benji's looking at me desperately, trying to read my eyes, begging me to fill him in. "What if we do tell him where we are?"

Another sniffle. "He... he'll bring me to you, safe. He says he just wants to watch over you, make sure you're not... make sure you're not touching his man."

I flinch as I hear those words. His man. He seriously thinks Benji's his man, after everything that's happened. "Joel, what the fuck? Tony has Billy?"

My brother shakes me out of my thoughts. "Yeah. We tell Tony where we are, he brings Billy here safe and sound. That's the deal."

For a moment Benji looks torn, but then he just nods. "Tell him."

I sigh. I love Billy too much to let anything happen to him, but I thought we'd gotten away from the psychotic ex-boyfriend. I guess I should've known. "We're in Baltimore, Abbey Lodge hotel, room 306."

The phone disconnects. I look at Benji for a moment, and he looks back at me, and then I look around quickly before pulling him into my arms. "When Tony's here, I won't be able to do this anymore."

His arms pull tight around me as I kiss him, drinking in everything about him. He's beautiful, he's talented, he's smart, and he's also a fantastic kisser. And he wants me. When we finally pull away, breathless, he hugs me tightly. "Don't worry, Joel," he murmurs softly into my ear, "that won't be our last kiss."