Page 50 of Ticket to the Stars: Part One

The truth of his answer was evident by the sheer rawness in his voice, in how he refused to look at me as he said it, as if he was ashamed of feeling that way.

Maybe it was only because I’d just kissed Priest, and so kissing was on my mind, but right then, I wondered what it’d be like to kiss him. To feel his lips on mine and breathe him in in his entirety.

Would Bishop kiss like Priest, or would it be different?

“I shouldn’t have made a big deal about it,” Bishop said, finally looking at me. “We’re like a family, so there’s no room for feelings like that here. It won’t happen again, I promise. No more poking the Priest bear. No more jealousy.” He gave me a smile after that, but there were no dimples, and that told me his smile was a little fake.

Just like his words were.

Because they had to be. You couldn’t just shut jealousy off. If I told him that Priest and I had made out last night, Bishop would probably fly off the handle in jealousy again.

But I wouldn’t tell him. The only thing I did say was, “I appreciate it. Thanks, Bishop.” Just to signal the end of the conversation, because I didn’t want to hear about how it’d never happen again.

Honestly, I kind of liked the idea of two guys fighting over me. I blamed Cleo.

Chapter Twenty-Two – Deacon

Ramona swung by a few days after we were in the studio with a flash drive. A tiny thing that contained various mixes of Priest and Angel singing together. Multiple songs done in multiple different ways. She couldn’t stay to listen to it with us, but she said she’d listened to it on her own and had some thoughts about how to proceed next. Our job was to give it a listen or two, come up with some notes, and go from there.

Our comeback, as Ramona kept calling it, was getting closer and closer with each passing day. It still didn’t feel right to do any of this without my brother, but I didn’t know if that feeling would ever go away.

I pulled out my laptop and plugged the flash drive into the side. I sat front and center, while Angel was to my right. Bishop was on my left, and Priest paced the area behind the couch, too full of anticipation to give it a rest.

“What if it’s terrible?” Priest was busy saying. “What if it’s shit?” When Pope was part of the band, he’d always joked about pushing him aside and taking the center of the stage, so to speak, but that’s all they’d been: jokes. Now, his debut as a lead singer was close.

“Hey,” Bishop said as he glanced over his shoulder at him, “you might be terrible, but Angel here is going to rock it.”

Priest tossed him a glare, while Angel coughed and squirmed, as if she was uncomfortable with the praise. I elected to ignore them all as I turned up my laptop’s volume and opened up the files.

The files were grouped by song, and each song had a few different versions. I clicked onBorn to Die, 1and let it play. The intro to one of our most popular songs started, heavy guitar aided with a hard beat, and then Priest’s voice started the first verse:“Every time I look at you, you choke me up inside. The things you make me do would make other people run and hide…”

Priest sang the whole first verse, the bridge, and the refrain, but when it came time for the second verse, Priest’s voice was notably absent. Angel’s took his place:“Every time I look at you, you make me want to die. The things I’ve done for you would make the devil himself shy…”

Angel did the whole second verse, but on the bridge to the refrain, Priest’s voice joined her. Together they sang, building up strength until the chorus, where they dueted the entire thing.The voices weren’t in perfect harmony—they hadn’t practiced the harmonizing notes or anything, but it still sounded way better than I thought.

I hadn’t really listened much at the studio. I didn’t see why I was forced to go. I didn’t give a shit. And watching Priest moon over Angel while they recorded wasn’t my idea of fun. Maybe that was why, as I listened, I was struck with awe.

These two… they really did sound good together. It reminded me ofSkillet. Angel definitely couldn’t go too high, but her voice was strong, and even when she sang behind Priest, she gave the song something extra. More oomph.

After the first rendition of Born to Die was done, I hit the pause button before it automatically played the next version. Priest had stopped pacing, standing behind me as he whispered, “Holy shit. That was… that was fucking amazing, wasn’t it? Tell me I’m not the only one who really liked that.”

No one else said a word, and I didn’t think it was because everyone was debating on how to let Priest down. No, if I had to guess, I’d say everyone was quiet simply because they were speechless.

That one song? Blew the original out of the water. It wasn’t the same sound, not as hard as the song had been with Pope, but maybe that was a good thing. Maybe the new sound would invite more listeners, entice more people to become fans and overlook the negative press.

“I really liked it,” Bishop said. “But maybe before we talk more, we should listen to them all.” On my other side, Angel was nodding along with him, as if she agreed.

So I hit play and let my laptop go from song to song, version to version. It played them all in a row, and we were frozen, motionless as we did nothing but listen.

Each song had the same versions. Like the first, where Priest and Angel split verses and came together on the second refrain. Then there were versions where Priest did most of the singing, and Angel only sang the refrains with him, highlighting certain words. There were versions where the first verse was sung by Angel instead of Priest.

Basically, any which way you could think to combine their voices or have them each sing certain roles and parts, this flash drive had it all. Ramona must’ve had the sound guys working overtime to get all this done so fast.

Once we’d listened to the whole thing, Priest asked, “Well? Thoughts, because I just have the main one, which you all heard before.” To Angel, he said, “You’re going to bring us to the next level. Never thought I’d think Black Sacrament would sound good with a woman, but fuck, Angel, your voice is like honey.”

I glanced at her, thinking that Priest was laying it on a little thick, and I saw that Angel had started to blush.

Oh, good. Seemed she got over being upset at Priest, if that blushing was any indication.

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