Rising Star: Book 3 of The Orion Series

Welcome To Vermont

Like a rug pulled out from under us

One that we tripped on

Sometimes this is just so hard to go on

Go into the wild unknown

Red lights staining my eyes

Struggling to breathe

Struggling to receive

That which I know is mine

I can hear it calling but I'm deaf

Too afraid to move

Too afraid of death

Too afraid of what's in front of us

More afraid of what we left behind

I want what is mine

Not a doubt in my mind

But this shame smothers me

Who am I kidding?

We don't deserve anything at all

Just a trick of the mind

A pregnant fallacy 

Birthed since infancy

Shoved down our throats

As we prepare the goats

The dowry for our minds

--the song What We Left Behind, lyrics by Orion Bauwens

Once we're back in the States, Gloria tells us the happy news. EMI has agreed to shift money allocated towards video production into a room and board fund. Orion, Ben, and myself had never discussed it previously. That day Orion had brought us all in and said there was enough money "for the three of us" was the first we had ever addressed living situations.

Any other group of people probably would have been pissed at Orion for his presumptuous ways. But honestly? When he did stuff like that we trusted him. Not only did we trust him, but he had this weird sixth sense of knowing what everyone wanted. As soon as he said, "all of us" and the word "Vermont", it sounded perfect.

Orion said that I needed to leave it to him to tell his parents. When I told mine I was pleasantly surprised how okay they were with it. They went so far as to gift me the car they let me borrow when I lived there.

I'm not sure what changed...Maybe they saw how happy I was. Maybe they resigned themselves to the fact that we were a serious outfit, famous, that this was our actual career. Regardless, I'm happy to say I now had their loving support. (An apology would have been nice, but ya gotta pick your battles, yaknow?)

Ben's mom was heartbroken. Lots of tears. Ben always had been a bit of a mama's boy, so coming to terms he would be moving thousands of miles away was hard on both of them.

"There's Skype, yaknow," I reminded him what felt like every day.

"Yeah, I know," he would tell me glumly.

I spent the last few days in Michigan at my parents place. Orion told me he wanted to drive to Vermont. I thought that was a little strange, but I didn't question it. I also thought it was a little weird when he requested I pick him up at two in the morning. While I wasn't really happy setting out that early, I understood; he wanted to get an early start, get on the highway before the morning rush hour.