You Are The Music In Me

Chapter 18

A short one, but a bit of joy at the end.xo

Jax dropped Julie off at her house. She had been trying to hold in her tears – whether they were from sadness or frustration, Jax couldn't be sure.

"Hey Jules just text me if you need me. I mean it, okay?"

"Thanks JJ. Sorry today kind of... sucked at the end."

"Don't worry about it Jules. And um, let me know when you can about you know who" With a wink, he was off. Which makes him sound like Santa.

Julie ran into the studio, expecting to see an angry Luke. Instead, there was a very concerned Alex and Reggie.

"Julie! Thank god you're here! Listen, Luke went looking for you and he thought Caleb had captured you or something so he went to The Hollywood Ghost Club! I can't find Willie, and I don't know who to talk to but we need to do something!" Alex was pacing and starting to hyperventilate.

Julie felt horrible. Luke was willing to risk being taken by Caleb and there she was hanging out with another guy. Granted a guy who apparently had a crush on Alex, but Luke didn't know that!

"Alex, Reggie, he's... he's not at the club," Julie was trying to get Alex to calm down, but now Reggie was giving Julie a curious look.

"... How do you know that Julie?"

"Well it's complicated."

"Well uncomplicate it for me." Reggie was being assertive. He was a sweet little gumdrop most of the time, but he was fiercely loyal to his friends. And right now, one of his best ones was missing.

Julie sighed and slunk down onto Luke's couch. How did she keep messing everything up? "Okay well remember how I made plans to hang out with Jax after last night?"

SHOOT! Alex had forgotten about that when he wrote the note. Does this mean this is technically his fault? Mmmm probs not. Juke has major communication issues so this would have likely happened even without him interfering.

"Well we were hanging out – in a totally platonic way – and I guess Nick saw us while we were waiting in line for our hot dogs,"

"HOT DOGS! JULIE! SERIOUSLY!" Reggie started screaming. Julie winced and at least had the decency to look ashamed.

"Sorry Reg. I didn't eat it if that helps? Umm but anyway, Nick started acting weird and then grabbed me pretty hard, so Jax pretended to be my boyfriend to scare Nick off. I guess Luke overheard and he got mad? I mean, I know things have been kind of weird between us, but he didn't even give me a chance to explain. He would have don't the same thing as Jax if he had seen Nick acting the way he did."

"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be pretending" Alex whispered to Reggie. Who started laughing so hard that it kind of defeated the purpose of the whisper in the first place. Trying to change the subject, Alex brought the conversation back to Jax. "Julie, are you sure that it was just a platonic hang out? I mean, Jax is super hot and talented. It's not really surprising that Luke would be insecure."

Julie noticed two things. First, Alex is totally crushing on Jax too and he did say that he hasn't heard from Willie. She couldn't wait to text JJ and tell him. Her old best friend and one of her new best friends? THIS WAS AMAZING! AND ALSO SO NOT THE TIME! Secondly though, she noticed that Alex said Luke would be insecure. Why? Before Julie could reply to Alex, her dad hollered out that it was time for dinner.

When they walked into the dining room, they saw Luke angrily stomping down the stairs. Julie knew she always complained about Luke not respecting her privacy, but it would have been so much easier if he had been eavesdropping like he normally does while they were in the studio. Julie kept trying to catch Luke's eye, but he refused to look at her. Alex and Reggie tried to help, but Luke's stubbornness was in full force today.

After a few moments of awkward tension, Ray said he one more surprise. "I've added you boys to the family plan." While Julie and Carlos immediately understood what that meant, Alex, Reggie and Luke were completely confused.

"Does that mean that I get a new cellphone too? If the guys get new phones, I want a new phone too." Carlos turned to Reggie excitedly. "Reg there are so many great games we can play. And I'll show you how to take the best photos of Butter – maybe we should make an Instagram for him. I've heard you can get free stuff if people like your account enough!" Reggie was smiling like crazy, but mostly just because he was thinking about Butter, not because he understood what was going on.

Julie tried to use this good news to turn things around with Luke. "This is great guys! We'll be able to text all the time."

"Won't you be too busy with your boyfriend Jax?" Luke grumbled.

"Wait, Jax? Is Jax back in town?" Ray questioned. Great, Luke thought, Ray likes him better too.

"Oh um yeah, Jax has moved back. We were hanging out after school."

"Oh I see," Ray said looking at Luke. Turning back to Julie, he asked "And do I need to have a chat with Jax about asking you out on a date?" Luke was now looking at Ray.

"No Papi. It isn't like that at all. I swear." Julie took a deep breath. "Jax is actually interested in a friend of mine."

Luke's head turned so quickly that you'd think he have snapped his neck. Ray gave a smile at this. Ray did love Jax, but he had a good feeling about Luke. Ray knew that Luke would make Julie happy.

"How could he do better than you?" Luke mumbled to himself. Or at least he thought he mumbled, but he wasn't so sure now as every eye at the table was on Luke.