SING ME HOME ✰ l. patterson [jatp]

𝐯𝐢𝐢. 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

* 𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐄'𝐒 𝐏.𝐎.𝐕. *

JULIE AND I HAD woken up in the studio about an hour earlier than what time we normally woke up for school. Neither of us remembered really falling asleep there on the couch, only that we were going over the calculus answers, then talking about her performance for Mrs. Harrison, and then, I guess we fell asleep. We were barely awake when the boys had come down from the loft and appeared in front of us, each of them talking just as excited and fast as the other. But Julie and I were still half asleep and could barely even register what they were saying.

We said goodbye to them before sneaking back into her house to get ready for school, Mr. Molina was shocked to see that we were dressed and ready for the day the moment he came downstairs, considering he was always the first one downstairs in the morning to make his coffee. The best thing about being up that early was getting to eat some of his famous omelets. Sure, they weren't really famous, but they were delicious and always a morning favorite after our sleepovers.

After breakfast, Julie and I went back to the studio, in what I thought was going to be us saying goodbye to the guys. But instead, it was Julie wanting to rehearse her performance one more time. Of course, all three guys were up for it– just as excited to take part like they were last night. For obvious reasons, I tried to insist that Julie just rehearse it once on her own, since she would be performing it alone without the guys or me– but she just pushed back saying she wanted all of us to do it.

I couldn't even walk over to grab the guitar before Luke cut me off and handed me a white electric guitar with a smile, saying I should play it on that. When I went to question him, he just raised a single eyebrow, a smirk on his face and I immediately knew that he knew I had faked playing last night. What other reason would he give me his other electric guitar than to make sure that I was actually playing? It was easy to fake with the acoustic– you'd barely be able to notice it over the others' instruments. But you'd definitely notice one less electric guitar playing if I played with it.

He literally gave me no other choice than to play and I'm more than positive he saw the glare I had given him from the moment I grabbed the guitar. Luckily for me though, Mr. Molina came into the studio and said he had to go into town earlier than planned and offered both Julie and me a ride. I can't even begin to describe the wave of relief that had washed over me. I'm pretty sure I had basically sprinted across the room to put Luke's guitar back onto its stand and then out of the studio before any of the guys or Julie could say anything.

The only downside of Mr. Molina's rehearsal crash was that Julie didn't get to rehearse another time. And I had spent our entire car ride to school trying to convince her that she didn't need it. That she knew the song like the back of her hand already because that's just how great she was. And if Mrs. Harrison wouldn't let her back into the music program after watching her killer performance, then we'd definitely resort to a friendly worded letter begging Principal Lessa.