Rising Star: Book 3 of The Orion Series

Messy Life Truths

**TRIGGER WARNING** Discussion of abortion and depiction of alcoholism.

This explosion seems imminent

Is this illusion as good as Heaven

Or is this reality Hell?

Slice my hands to ribbons

Make the Nile from my blood

Would that make amends good enough for you?

--From the song Sleep or Faith, lyrics by Orion Bauwens

"Jake!"

I abruptly stop on the stairs. I'm over at Orion's place. He had called me, asking if I could come over. I agreed, so I have my mom drop me off.

I received the same lukewarm greeting from Orion's mother that I always receive. She told me he was in the basement. So that's where I am now, but I'm so stunned by what I see I can't move for a second.

Orion is on the couch. Next to him is a pack of beers. Four empty beer cans sit next to him. He's drunk.

"What the fuck, man?!"

I rush down the rest of the stairs, frantically closing the hatch. I go over to him and sit. He had been lounging, but now he sits up and grins at me.

"What?"

"What?!" I bark. "What?"

"Yeah, what?"

"You're four years away from being the legal age to be doing that--"

He snorts as he takes another sip of beer, which just makes me glare more.

"--it's the middle of the God damn day--"

"So?"

"And you're in your parents basement!"

"So?"

I growl and begin to walk back up the stairs.

"She broke up with me."

I stop.

"Stacy. She broke up with me."

I turn around. He looks at me right in the face.

"She had the abortion today. I went with her. I held her fucking hand. And she told me that she loved me, but that this was too much for her, and that after this she couldn't be with me because every time she looked at me she'd just think of--" he pauses when his voice cracks. "The baby..."

I slowly walk back down the stairs.

"So in one fucking day I lost a baby and I lost a girlfriend. So if you really wanna stand there, on your fucking moral high horse Jake, be my fucking guest. But I called you kinda hoping you'd cheer me up. But I guess I was wrong." He shakes his head and smirks. "I'm always fucking wrong..."

I jerk my head toward the hatch, shoving my hands into my jeans pockets. "C'mon."

He looks at me questioningly. So I do it again. "C'mon."

Orion down the rest of his drink, wipes off his mouth with his sleeve, and then walks to me, an expression of confusion on his face. Not providing an explanation, I lead him up and out of this hole we're in and bring him into the bright daylight outside.

Orion and I spend the day doing jack all, but it's the most fun I've had for a while. We hang out at that dorky little park down the street from his residence, climbing up the swings and balancing on top of the bar, flipping over it and hanging from our knees as though it were monkey bars. After that we go for a walk, talking about bands and video games. We head back towards my side of town where there's an arcade. I insist on paying for him, and we kill an hour there.