Rising Star: Book 3 of The Orion Series

Losing The Battle

You can say that it's tragic

Like the melancholy morning which we mourn

Recklessly upsetting

We are hating

You must think I am rueful

Twisted in these lies

Finding shame is what I do best

When you're annoying

Grieving at night

It's tragicomical

I killed the dire

Set it on fire

That's me, baby, that's me

--written by Orion on a napkin during a meeting

That press conference did nothing but bolster everyone's love for Orion and our band. Whereas Gloria was worried about bad press negatively affecting the sales of our tour, it had the opposite effect. After the press conference, we sold hundreds of more last-minute tickets, resulting in some more sold-out shows.

Of course though, Orion being Orion, saw this blessing as a curse, and had locked himself in the room on the bus.

"Ori," I tell him, annoyed, knocking. "You can't hide in your room forever."

"Why not?"

I literally bang my head on the door. "Because you're being ridiculous...Come on, come out of there and join us at the hotel, yeah?"

"Fuck off."

I pause. "No."

The door flies open unexpectedly. I still had my head against the door and I go crashing into Orion, headbutting him without meaning to. He swears but catches me as we almost tumble to the ground.

"Jacob!"

I stand up. "Well if you weren't being such an annoying assbag!"

He blinks at me. Then he cracks up. "What did you call me?"

I grin. "Assbag."

"What does that even mean?!"

"Hell if I know."

For a second we just stare at each other. Then Orion sighs heavily, running a hand through his greasy hair. "Come on."

I walk in. He gets up on the bed, opens the hatch, and climbs up. I crane my neck back and make a face at him when he looks down at me from the hole.

"Ew. Isn't there bird shit up there?"

"I sit where there isn't. There's not much, you'd be surprised."

It takes a couple tries, but I finally get up there (with his help). Orion is laughing at me. I glare and sit, being careful of where I plant my butt down. As Orion lights up a cigarette, he's still laughing.

"You should get a ladder."

He merely shrugs, blowing smoke out. I grab the cigarette out of his hand and take a puff, then hand it back.

"Orion man, I'm getting tired of asking this," I tell him seriously, shaking my head. "What's wrong?"

Orion turns his head and looks straight ahead instead of at me. For a while he doesn't answer, just smokes in the dark. When he decides to talk, he still doesn't look at me.