Falling Star: Book 2 of The Orion Series

Horses

"Alright, so."

I'm standing stage side. Orion, Jake, and Ben are on stage. Amy is next to me. The show hasn't started; Orion is addressing the crowd.

"Some things have changed since I last stood on a stage," Orion tells them, nervously plucking at his electric guitar. "One of them, as I'm sure you've heard by now, is we all almost died."

The crowd cheers. Which, I admittedly think is a weird response, but it's the best they can do probably to show they're happy no one died. Even so, I can't help but laugh.

"But luckily that ended well and we're able to perform for you as a whole group tonight."

The crowd goes wild. He lets it go on for a bit before grinning, motioning with his hands he wants them quiet. They obey.

"The second thing, which is also a huge life changing event for me, is one I know you haven't heard." He looks at me briefly and throws a grin my way. "Sorry, boys and girls whose hearts I may have stolen, but I'm officially off the market. Forever. I'm engaged."

The crowd loses its shit. Orion looks at me again, still grinning. He speaks into the microphone, though he's still looking at me. "So I'd like to formally introduce you to Tristan."

The crowd manages to get louder. Orion didn't tell me any of this. He knows I would've killed him. I shake my head, waving my hands in protest. He laughs and Amy is pushing my shoulder, grinning.

"C'mon," he prods, still speaking into the microphone, "don't be shy."

I continue to refuse.

He laughs again. "Get your fucking ass out here. Don't make me call you by your full name."

The crowd laughs and cheers. Moaning and running a hand through my hair, I walk out onto stage.

I've never been on a stage before. It's bright. I can barely see anything past the first few rows, and even that's if I squint. Not knowing what to do, I wave. Orion laughs, kissing me on the cheek.

I stoop over, whispering into his ear. "I'm gonna kill you."

He laughs, speaking into the microphone. "Then again maybe the wedding will have to be called off--he just threatened to kill me."

More laughter and I give him a playful shove.

"Say something to the crowd," he tells me. "Introduce yourself!"

I shake my head, which just causes the people to clap and cheer. So, awkwardly, I lean forward.

"Howdy everyone," I say.

They cheer. Orion cracks up at my use of the word 'howdy'. I grin at him and laugh nervously. Even so I continue, clasping my hands behind my back.

"My name is Tristan, and Orion asked me to marry him, and I said yes."

They go crazy. I look at Orion. "Good enough?"

He kisses me. In front of everyone. I love it. They cheer. Orion gives me a playful shove.

"Yes, good enough. Thank you for humoring me."

"You owe me," I joke.

As I walk off stage, a bit humiliated admittedly, I hear several people go "aw". I shake my head. When I get back to Amy she hugs me.

"I don't know how you guys do that," I tell her.

"I think you need a certain level of insanity to do what we do," she laughs.

"So the last thing," Orion says to the crowd, "is something a little more serious."

The crowd settles.

"In the crash, Amy unfortunately got the brunt of it, and she almost didn't make it."

I don't know if I've ever heard a concert crowd go so quiet.

"She's fine now, but her leg was screwed up really badly. They told her she might not walk, and then they changed that to she might have a permanent limp and have to walk with a cane..."

Orion looks our way again and smiles. "However, since Amy is my fucking sister, and badassery runs in our family...I'd like to re-introduce Amy!"

Amy takes off running. Once she hits the stage she waves, continues running, then does a cartwheel. She lands doing the splits and laughs, still waving. She gets up, holding up her leg that now sprouts a huge scar. As the crowd goes nuts she blows kisses and waves. Finally she makes her way to the piano and sits, throwing out her shortened train from her costume.

"Wait wait wait," she says into her microphone, "before we start, I wanna say something."

Orion literally bows and moves out of the way. He has to catch his top hat that nearly falls off. I see him laugh in embarrassment, and I'm sure that fumble is going to be all over the internet with fangirls and fanboys squealing over it.

"I just want to say thank you all for all your well wishes through everything," she says, and is met with plenty of cheers. She grins. "I also wanted to tell you that we have a special surprise for you mid-show. It's a new addition to our set-list. I've been wanting to do this for a really long time, but Orion originally shot it down..." She grins evilly at Orion. "I guess me almost dying gave him a change of heart, eh Ori?"

The crowd loses it's shit at the nickname. I crack up. She obviously literally didn't mean to say that, her hands flying to her mouth. Orion looks a little peeved, but laughs. He speaks into the microphone. "Thanks for that Aims."

Then they start the show. The surprise was a new song. I know he and Amy single-handedly composed it. 

They've hired a full orchestra for the remainder of the tour. The brother-sister duo rise up from the middle of the orchestra pit about a minute into the song, Amy playing her flute, Orion playing his viola. (Later on in interviews he had to specify it's a viola, not a violin.) 

They both look over the moon as they play, smiling at each other. Even better, the crowd loves it, stomping out any fears Orion had about it being too radical of a shift for Saturn Mutants. By this point, I'm pretty sure there's nothing the band could do that would tarnish the love their fans have for them.

As I watch them perform, staring at each other with nothing but excitement glittering in their eyes that are illuminated from the electronic flashing lights, I realize that life is perfect. I know not that many people can say that in this world. I'm very, very lucky.