Stand Tall // Julie and the Phantoms (Luke Patterson)

25

May 13th, 1994

Emilia entered the studio the boys had started meeting at.

She laid on the floor and crossed her legs, one on top of the other, as she pulled out a notebook and pencil.

She hummed softly to herself as she wrote the words 'step into my world'. She wrote a question mark, not knowing what to add for the next line. After much deep thought, she only had the one line, which annoyed her tremendously.

Emilia let out a frustrated yell and threw the pencil across the room.

It hit the newcomer who picked it up and joked, "Watch out for flying projectiles."

She looked up to see who had entered. "Oh, hey."

"What are you doing?" Luke wondered.

"Trying to write a song, but I can't do it."

"You can, Emmy."

"Emmy? You're still calling me that, huh?"

"I, uh, you don't mind, do you?"

"No. I would have told you if I did. Can you help me with this?"

"Of course." He sat next to her and handed her the pencil. "Okay, I'm thinking after the first line we have 'bittersweet story about a girl'."

"Bittersweet?"

"Well, you've been sick. I know you're in remission right now, but-"

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, no. The line works well, but it's missing a word. I just don't know what. What do you think of these lines? 'Here in front of me. Shining so much brighter than I have ever seen. Life can be so mean. But when he goes I know he doesn't leave. The truth is finally breaking through. Two worlds collide when I'm with you.' That all just came to me. Whoa."

"I like that a lot. Two worlds?"

"A world where I'm healthy and sick. I've lived both. Why, should it be changed?"

"No, it's perfect, Emmy. Um, I've got more for the first verse. 'Shook me to the core. Voice like an angel, I've never heard before.' And for the end of the verse, 'We come to life when we're...' I don't know what you're calling this song."

"I was thinking Perfect Harmony." Luke smiled and the brunette frowned. "Why, is it bad?"

"No, it's rad. I lo -- um, I really like it."

She looked at him curiously before saying, "Okay, well, I feel free from everything when I'm with you, and-"

"And we've always had more than chemistry." Emilia met his eyes. "What? You know that's true. From the moment we met, I knew you saw it."

"That's true. Uh, the music you want to make always been important to me. More than I think I've realized."

Luke smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'd go so far to say that we're more than friends and we play pretend."

She returned his smile. "'You're more to me.'"

"'We're everything.'"

"Everything?"

"I -- Is it bad?"

"Luke, you don't write bad music. Surprising, but not bad. Um, when we sing, our voices rise and soar."

"They rise and soar so high. We come to life when we sing together."

Emilia looked at the words on the paper and smiled. "Wow, Luke. This is amazing! Thank you."

Luke moved to crouch in front of her. "It is pretty good. But it's missing something. I say we come back to it. I could go for something to eat. How about you?"

She nodded. "Food sounds great. Let me just put this somewhere."

Emilia put the song in Luke's folder and followed him from the studio.

Unbeknownst to the two, the song would be forgotten about until much later when a brokenhearted boy stumbled upon it once again, two months and almost two weeks after the girl's death.

October 22, 1994

Luke sat in the studio alone and picked up his folder. Something fell out and he looked at the paper. Perfect Harmony. He remembered months before where he'd worked on the song with Emilia. He remembered the flying pencil. To him, it seemed like an eternity ago.

He pulled out the song and read the lyrics. One line caught his eye. "'Bittersweet story about a girl.'" In between bittersweet and story, he added love. "'Bittersweet love story about a girl.' Bittersweet. That's one way to put it. Emmy, 'I'll hold your music here inside my hands'. Literally. You would've made a joke about that."

Luke noticed a line where she'd written bridge and a question mark. He thought for a moment and started writing. 'I feel your rhythm in my heart, yeah. You are my brightest, burning star. I never knew a love so real (so real). We're heaven on Earth, melody and words. And when we are together we're...'

He read over the words and sniffled. "I miss you so much, Emilia." He repeated some of her lyrics at the end. 'We say we're friends. We play pretend. You're more to me. We create a perfect harmony.'

After a moment, he looked at the words on the paper. "You and I both know we were never just friends, Emmy."

Luke wrote Emilia's name at the top and placed a heart around her name before whispering, "I love you, Emilia." He wrote the words 'I love you' above her name and placed a heart around it.

He glanced at another song and two lines caught his attention. 'No time for goodbyes' and 'And write in every empty space the words "I love you" in replace'. He shut the notebook, placed Emilia's song in another folder, and set it in a box.

If Luke was being honest, he didn't know if the band would ever release her song. It was incredibly personal, and maybe one day he'd decide to release it to the world, but he certainly wasn't ready to at that moment.

He closed his eyes and made a promise as he whispered to himself, "Emilia, if Sunset Curve ever becomes what you always dreamt it could be, me and the boys will record your song. If we ever perform at the Orpheum, not that I think we ever will, but if we do, me and the boys will record your song and release it to the world. You won't be forgotten, Emmy. Not now, not ever."