Impermanent Perfection - jatp/luke

1.05

shortly after the boys left their room, julie and jade made their way down stairs to see what the rest of the family was doing.

"hey dad." julie greeted ray with a smile. "what'chya working on?" she asks as the girls walk over to him at the computer.

"well, now that the house is on the market, we need to add some photos to the website. help me pick some good ones." he explains as julie bent over his shoulder look look at them.

jade lifted carlos's feet from the top of the couch to move them out of the way so she could sit on the arm of the couch. he looked at her slightly offended but quickly returned to his video game.

"i got this batch right here." ray says, flipping through a few photos.

"these are really nice." julie compliments, making ray grin happily.

"yeah?" he looks at her for a moment. "thanks." he flips through a few more photos. "these ones didn't turn out though. the ones from moms studio." the girls eyes widened upon seeing the pictures. "it's like, little lights and dots all over the place. kinda look like orbs, right?"

"orbs?" carlos shot up quickly to look at the screen. "i've seen some freaky stuff about those on youtube." he leans against the back of the couch to get a closer look. "people say they're ghosts." he explains, and julie and jade looked to each other with wide eyes for a moment. "do you think that's mom and she made some friends?" he asks, and ray let out a small chuckle.

"that's a nice thought but, there's no such thing as ghosts." he shakes his head at the boy.

"sounds like someone been spending too much time on the internet." julie laughs, leaning on the couch next to him. "you can just trash those." she says, and he nods.

"all right, so trash, trash, trash." ray narrates himself as he deletes each picture.

"um, dad?" julie starts and the man looks up at her.

"yeah?" he nods for her to continue.

"i was thinking, if we're just moving because of me," she says slowly, and jade feels a smile form on her face. "and you three want to stay, i'm fine with that." she finishes and carlos and jade looked at each other happily.

"i vote we stay!" jade and carlos speak together, making ray chuckle softly.

"i don't want to have to clean under my bed." carlos explains his reasoning, making jade shake her head in amusement at the boy.

"noted." ray informs him before turning back to julie. "what made you have second thoughts?"

"i don't know," she says with a small sigh. "i guess, a combination of things." she shrugs and jade was nearly bouncing with excitement. she knew after julie played it was only matter of time before she came around to the idea of staying at the house. "i know that tía says that moving is moving on. but i don't think that's the answer."

"well, i totally agree with you on that." ray stands up to face his daughter. "i mean, i think moving on has to come from the inside." he looks to each girl for a moment. "and then two of us, took a huge step this morning." he adds softly and julie and jade smile at each other for a moment.

"all our memories of mom are here." julie turns back to her father. "and we should be too."

"can we stay?" jade looks at the man hopefully. he paused for a moment before his face broke out into a grin.