**CONTENT WARNING** Depiction of a bad anxiety attack, reader discretion is advised.

Silent intruder

Worse than a computer

Stalking you behind the worst things

You think that you'll make it

Just try to and fake it

But it all comes tumbling down 'round your ears

Choke on the smoke

Give it a poke

Yeah I'm not dead I'm right here

Living in fear

My God, on the pier

Just to be thought so alive

Silent I drown

My hands cuffed and bound

That's how it is year after year

Counting my sin

I wish I could win

But who am I kidding? All that I am I'm just me

--the song Anxious, lyrics by Orion Bauwens

"OH MY GOD JAKE YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!"

I pull my phone away from my ear, wincing. Cautiously I bring it back to my ear. "Dude, calm--"

"WE'RE GETTING A STAR ON THE WALK OF FAME!"

I pull the phone away from my ear.

"WE'RE GETTING A FUCKING STAR ON THE FUCKING WALK OF FAME!"

"WHAT?!"

"WE'RE GETTING A STAR ON THE WALK OF FAME IN FUCKING HOLLYWOOD!!!! WOOOO!"

I run outside of my house, literally. Ben is already outside, screaming his head off. Orion, who had called me, comes out last, flinging himself off the front steps and running to us. The three of us grab onto each other, jumping up and down, screaming our heads off. I don't even know what the fuck I'm saying, and I can't understand them, either. We're all completely hysterical.

We end up going to Ben's house and do something really stupid. Well, at the time it wasn't stupid. It just...didn't end well.

To celebrate, Ben brought out some fireworks. Orion was cracking up, clapping his hands.

"What the fuck? You just--had these?"

Ben shrugs, starting to stage them. "I have more money than I know what to do with now."

Orion gives him a look. "Try giving to a charity?"

Ben shrugs, putting down the last one. "I don't know which one..."

"Talk to Gloria. I'm sure she could give you a list."

"Alright, you're killin' the vibe!" Ben whines at him. "And I will. But first--celebratory fireworks!"

As each one goes off, we 'oooo' and 'aaaah'. That is, until the third from last one goes shooting off more or less horizontally.

"Oh shit!" we all say together, jumping.

It goes up at the last second, landing on one of our neighbor's roof. All of our eyes are huge.

"Ooooooh fuck," Orion says.

A second later, it explodes.

It would have been pretty. Except, you know. The fact that it just detonated on a neighbors roof.

Orion sighs heavily and pulls out his phone, immediately calling 9-1-1.

"We are so fucked," Ben says, looking in horror as the fire spreads on the roof pretty quickly.

"Hi," Orion says, scratching his brow. "My name is Orion Bauwens, and you have to come to Eberly street quickly...there's a fire..."

~

Luckily, big picture, the Bloom's were really cool about Ben setting their house on fire. No one was hurt, and the fire was put out in time that, besides damage to the roof, the fire hadn't spread to destroy anything.

"I am really, really, really sorry," Ben told them, the three of us standing awkwardly with the grey haired, retired Mr. and Mrs. Bloom standing before us in their pajamas.

"You woke up the entire neighborhood!" Mrs. Bloom snaps at us.

"It won't happen again," Orion tells them.

"You're damn right it won't!" Mr. Bloom snaps, hands on his hips. "You can't just, move in here and upset the entire place!"

"We know," I reply, "and we're really, really sorry."

A police officer was there, too, of course. "Mr. and Mrs. Bloom," he says, thumbs linked in the belt loops of his pants, "this is completely up to you how you want to handle this." The officer glares at us a bit. "Destruction of property, and fireworks are illegal in the state of Vermont..."

I think I might faint. "W-what's that mean?"

Ben looks like he might cry. "Are we going to go to jail?"

"Technically you could," the officer responds, "you're, at the very least, getting a heavy fine..."

Mr. Bloom signals to his wife that he wants to talk with her privately. They turn their backs to us. It's the worst thirty seconds of my life. Okay, it's not, but it's certainly up there. Finally they turn back to us.

"You have to pay for a new roof," Mrs. Bloom snaps at us.

"Of course!" we all say in unison.

"And you have to hire contractors that are willing to work when it's convenient for us."

That's....not really how contractors work, but yeah, sure.

"Okay," we all say.

Mr. Bloom points at up and squints. "We've got our eyes on you..."

As the pair shuffles away in their slippers, they look over their shoulders several times to glare at us. Once they disappear around the corner, we all sigh in slight relief. The officer writes us each a ticket...for one hundred dollars. Before I can stop myself, I blurt something out.

"That's it?"

The officer raises his eyebrow at me. "Would you like it higher? Or maybe a day behind bars?"

I swallow, and I'm sure I look petrified. "N-no sir."

"I'm also going to need any more fireworks you have."

"Of course, sir," Ben says, and leads us to the back yard and to his garage.

When everything is said and done, and the emergency vehicles are gone, we go back into Ben's house. For a moment we just stand, Ben and I looking awkwardly at each other, Orion looking at his feet. Finally, Orion looks at us with just his eyes, and we can barely see the half-smile.

"Guys?"

We look at him.

"We're gonna have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame."

We all lose our shit again, jumping up and down and screaming.

Don't get me wrong, we felt terrible about what we had done to the Bloom's house. We still feel terrible, for various reasons (mainly because it put our notoriety on the map in our neighborhood...). But you also have to understand...

Our dreams were coming true. No one had died, we had the money for low fines and a stupid roof. We had a Grammy under our belts, and now a star. The future was looking good for us.

Little did we know it wasn't just the roof that was going to catch fire soon.

~

We were currently kneeling behind our star, smiling for the plethora of camera flashes going off. Ben is in a grey suit, his hair slicked to the side. I've decided to go for a more dramatic look, wearing a burgundy suite with a black button-down shirt under it. Orion is, well, Orion, decked out in black jeans, a black shirt with a high collar and long sleeves that poke out of his black jacket and cover most of his hands. He's laid on his eyeliner thick today, and I love it.

Afterwards we're scheduled to do some interviews.

"Guys," Orion says.

We turn to him immediately. He doesn't sound right.

"What's wrong?" I demand.

"I can't--I can't do the interviews," Orion tells us quietly as the camera people pack up their equipment.

I furrow my brow. Orion doesn't look good. For one he's shaking. For another he's paler than usual, lips a cherry red against his skin.

"What's going on?" Ben asks worriedly.

Orion holds his head briefly, his breathing starting to come out erratically. "I need to--I need to get out of here..."

Before we can reply, he rushes away. Ben and I look at one another for a second and then take off after him.

"Fuck," I mumble as we rush after him. Gloria was to meet us at the studio where we were going to have our first interview. I really, really wish she were here right now...

Orion takes a right at the corner. Ben and I run after him. However, running wasn't needed. Orion is leaning against the building with his arm, head pressed to his forearm, other hand on his thigh as he's getting sick. I stop a second, shocked, but then rush over.

"Orion--" I say, putting my hand on his shoulder.

He shoves it off and glares at me. "Don't t-touch me. Just d-don't fucking touch me right n-now."

"Are you okay?" Ben asks.

"Does it look like I'm okay?!"

Just then there's a flash. Ben and I spin around, Orion looking right. A young man, looking about our age, stands, camera partially down.

Orion takes a couple steps forward, a murderous look on his face. Ben and I stop him. Orion pushes all his weight on our hands, but we hold him back.

"Did you just take my fucking picture? Did you?"

"Yeah," the man says, looking flummoxed.

"Well get rid of it!" Orion shouts at him, now violently trying to get past Ben and I.

"Dude, Orion--"

"You had no right! You had no fucking right! You got your fucking pictures by the star, now leave me alone! Leave me the fuck alone!"

The man's light eyes grow, and his mouth opens slightly.

"I'm not a fucking animal at the zoo! The pictures were done, so get the fuck out of here!"

The man mumbles an apology and rushes away.

"Orion," Ben snaps at him. "Dude, that was--"

"He had no right!" Orion screams at Ben, beating on his chest. The anger gives way to tears, and he sinks to the ground. We stare down at him.

"He had no right," Orion cries, "he had no fucking right..."

Ben gets down, wrapping his arms around Orion. As discreetly as I can, I slip my phone out of my pocket. I quickly bring up my contacts, glancing over my shoulder as I walk away. I hit the contact I want and put the phone to my ear. After a few rings, the line picks up.

"Yeah, hey, Gloria? It's Jake." I look over my shoulder. Orion is still on the ground. I only pray no more people with cameras appear. "You need to cancel or reschedule the interviews for today. All of them." Once again I look at Orion. "There's something wrong with Orion and he's not up for it..."