“Everything good for the video?” I asked, looking over Priyanka’s head to see the screen. It just sat stagnant on the start of the music video, ready to play at a moment’s notice.
“It looks great!” Priyanka chimed in, turned to me with a smile. “I love the addition with the tour flyer. It’s gonna be awesome when you post the flyer. Fans are going to lose it!”
“That’s the hope, I guess.” I chuckled. I still wasn’t used to people caring about my music.
Van shifted behind us, stepping up to the other side of Rodrigo’s chair. They each gave each other a quick greeting, which was a head nod and a smile, which gave me very straight guy introduction vibes and I inwardly snarled at the idea of Van being straight.
Because clearly I had no self-control.
“Can I see it?” Van asked, tearing me away from the usual turmoil that resulted in my obvious acknowledge of my attraction to him. “Since I’m not that familiar with your music?”
“Dude, how have you not heard him?” Rodrigo, being the great friend and collaborator he was, sounded personally offended by the idea, but he slapped on a smirk all the same. “He’s all over Top 40 radio!”
Van shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t listen to the radio.”
“That’s fine.” I said, shaking my head at how horrified Rodrigo looked. “Play the video. I should probably watch it all together anyway instead of just the new addition.”
“Buckle up, bro.” Rodrigo said in Van’s direction, hovering his finger over the space bar to start the video. “This shit rocks.”
As soon as Rodrigo pressed play, the video faded from the black still of the beginning to a shot of me with my eyes closed, sitting in a swimming pool of different gemstones. I winced, remembering how uncomfortable that shot had been back when we’d filmed the video months ago. I loved music video shoots, and practical effects were awesome to accomplish, but actually sitting in a swimming pool of heavy, sharp ass gemstones wasn’t exactly something I wanted to do again.
My eyes snapped open in the video as soon as the beat started blaring. Priyanka and Rodrigo were already jostling their bodies and various limbs to the music as I crawled my way out of the swimming pool. I couldn’t help but laugh and smile attheir love and support, hyping me up. There was a reason I’d chosen forBirthstone Babyto be my second single. Everyone, myself included, thought it was a fucking smash. It was a bit of a different vibe than my lead single,The Feeling Of Being Buried Alive,which was still guns a blazing like this one, but with a little less of a harder 808.
What I liked most was that the ending ofThe Feeling Of Being Buried Alivevideo had ended with me being buried in the same swimming pool of gemstones that the Alistair in the video forBirthstone Babyhad just made his way out of. The video proceeded to get to the chorus, where no less than five backup dancers joined me to do the excruciating choreo that I’d had to learn for the video. My backup dancers for this section of the video weren’t human though, and I saw the shock spread of Van’s face when he saw me dancing with them.
“You have Orbs in your music video?” Van’s question wasn’t full of malice or prejudice, which delighted me. I couldn’t have someone on my team that wasn’t supportive of Orbs and the rights they deserved.
“Absolutely.” I said sternly. “For this album, I want the world reflected around me, including having Orbs involved.” I’d had stellymn in the video forThe Feeling Of Being Buried Alive, so it only made sense to me in my head that their creature counterparts would be a part of this video, since it was a continuation. “I thought caeboros fit the concept of the video as well, with the gemstones they have embedded in their foreheads.”
“No, it’s awesome.” Van assured me, the video continuing to play, shifting to the next segment of the song. “I just wasn’t expecting it. It’s great that you’re including Orbs like this. They deserve to be included.”
On that we could more than agree. Just because society was having difficulty lately accepting Orbs didn’t mean that I hadto follow suit. Just a couple weeks ago, there’d been a situation in my hometown of all places where a tythwig had almost been attacked by some rich asshole because the tythwig had a thing for a guy they both hooked up with. It was a big deal, considering that the rich asshole was a member of the Rhodes family, a family of psychos that had known issues with Orbs and their rights to live amongst us.
It was up to people like me, with a platform, to form positive outlooks on Orbs. And that’s exactly what I hoped to achieve by having Orbs in all my music videos going forward.
Toward the end of the video, I caught Van tapping his foot to the beat of the music. He was normally so straitlaced and stoic, even in the short time I’d been acquainted with him. It was nice to see that my music could have the effect of loosening him up.
“Well, I’ve been missing out, haven’t I?” Van said once the video ended. He regarded me with an apologetic nod. “I’m sorry I haven’t been listening to your music. He’s right,” He gestured toward Rodrigo with the tilt of his head. “That shit did indeed rock.”
“Thank you.” I could feel the praise going straight to my cheeks, knowing that red would darken my usually pale skin if I happened by a mirror.
“Are you dropping the video and tour announcement tonight?” Priyanka had been pressuring me about when I was going to make the announcement, and I still hadn’t told her any sort of a plan.
“I was thinking of waiting until after the Hot Ones interview drops.” I hadn’t really decided this until right that moment, because I was a little too good at flying by the seam of my pants. “I know we’re filming next week, but I think they said it would be out before Thanksgiving.”
“That’s right, it will be. I think that’s a good idea though. Give the fans something to look forward to over the holidays. We cantalk ticket presales and stuff like that after the interview as well, but we need to stay ahead of it if we’re going to stay on schedule.”
I agreed with Priyanka, feeling a bit better now that I’d voiced the impromptu plan to her about the video and the subsequent tour announcement. We’d been behind the scenes planning for tour for so long that it felt weird to finally have it just beyond the horizon.
I just needed to get my shit together, especially when it came to Van, in order to make tour as smooth a process as possible.
Chapter 7
A sigh saunteredout of my lips as I walked toward the piano in what normally would have been the dining room. Per usual, I was busy with the business side of my job, while my mind was plagued with thoughts that I couldn’t seem to let go of.
I was waiting for Van to arrive so we could do a local event where I was set to unveil the music video forBirthstone Baby, and the subsequent tour announcement. After strategizing with Priyanka after we’d watched the video at my house last week, she’d said that involving the local community would drive out some more buzz, so she threw together a music video viewing party at a club. She’d been posting on socials about the event, encouraging local fans to come by and support my latest video release. All of this was happening after I’d just shot my interview for Hot Ones a few days ago, and that had posted earlier today, so I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed.
What didn’t help was the fact that I’d had that damned dream again. It was frame for frame the exact same one I’d had before, with me being on the cliff where I’d shot my first album cover about to be swarmed by a mob. And just like before, I’d jumped off the cliff into the water, only to be assaulted by the ghostly version of my mother. So naturally, thoughts of the factthat my mother had left Phoebe was swarming my brain like a hive of agitated wasps.
