Bluebirds Without Wings | Julie and the Phantoms

To Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

Luke was standing guard in the dim hall, trying to remember every note Princess Julie had played hours before. He was still in a state of dreaming, pressing his fingers together from the ache of playing a guitar for the first time in a while.

And her smile.

He had to take a deep breath every time he remembered it, like it was a baseball bat to the heart. For the first time, he had met the Princess Julie everyone had placed on a well-deserved pedestal. And after two hours of playing music and singing, Princess Julie went back into her room, giving him a small smile before shutting the door. She was otherworldly.

Luke heard the door to his and Reggie's shared room down the hall, and Reggie came stumbling out, crashing into the wall and pushing himself off. He was half-asleep but the hit seemed to wake him up completely. Luke chuckled to himself as Reggie walked over to him, still yawning. "2AM, dude. Ready to sleep?" Reggie asked him.

"I'm honestly not that tired yet," Luke admitted to him. Reggie leaned against the wall across him, putting his hands in his suit pockets. His tie wasn't tied yet, and Luke noticed that the buttons weren't lined up correctly. Reggie had a habit of dressing in the dark, and they always made him run extra laps at the academy when his shirts were inside out. It wasn't a habit that was meant to die out.

"I was tired," Reggie said, crossing his arms. "Played soccer with the Prince and his friends again. Every day I get beat by ten year olds."

Luke couldn't keep it inside anymore. "I played music with the Princess today. Sort of. I was on the balcony, but we played at the same time." Reggie raised an eyebrow as if he were still dreaming.

"Really? Doesn't she hate you."

"Not anymore." She did apologize. "I think." Luke ran his hands through his hair and let out a sigh. "I don't know." A part of him was scared that is was a one-time thing. An apology act. "She did tell me she was sorry. I like to think the Princess is one to keep her word."

"You never told me what happened after she ran away from you." Luke called Reggie right away and all Reggie could tell him was I don't know what to tell you, man. He just made Luke freak out even more.

"I didn't get in trouble. The entire kingdom was occupied with the man on the run, and the King told her to get over it or something like that. I got lucky somehow."

"You did get lucky. I had to take the Prince to a safe house. I had like thirty calls about making sure he was safe somewhere. I can't imagine you would've been able to get her to follow you somewhere."

Luke scratched his arm. "I just didn't answer any of those calls. I was running everywhere trying to find her and then I saw the helicopters and I was thinking, 'Oh god do they know she's missing already?' Then I ran into Brandy from the academy and she told me what happened, and I went straight to the castle. I got a call from the King when I was at the doors, and he told me he knew what happened and not to worry about it. Said something about there's bigger battles to fight."

"I think the King was venting to you, dude." Luke laughed; Reggie's comments always lifted his mood even when unintentional. "Lucky. I've been trying to be his friend, but he seems busy."

"He is ruling a kingdom."

Reggie touched his collar and realized his buttons were mismatched and started to redo them. "So," Reggie asked. "Is she good?"

Luke smiled. "She has the voice of an angel."

"Maybe she'd like going to the club." Every weekend, Luke and Reggie would go to this club house hidden down in the corners of the castle town, Montseratt. It wasn't illegal or anything, but it wasn't an advertised space. It was once a bar and was now just a place to hang out and play music or create art. You only knew about it when you were a certain age through word of the mouth and once you hit a certain age, you didn't go anymore out of respect for the younger generations.