Healing - JATP Fanfic (Luke x OC)

Chapter 2

"How does this sound, Bri?" Luke asks, playing a cool riff, but to her it sounds a little off. Like the end notes don't match the key of the rest of it.

"There's something wrong with the ending. Make it a G instead of an A." She replies, not even so much as looking up from her calculus homework. Her teacher decided to give them a ten page review before finals the next week. That teacher is nicknamed "Mrs. Hell", which is close to her real name, Mrs. Hall. And she and Julie have both figured out why everyone who's had her or heard of her calls her that now. It's been over three hours of derivates and integrals.

"See? I told you. It sounded wrong." Reggie points out, placing his bass on the stand. "So, where's Julie?" The little love-sick puppy has been dating her, in secret, for a month. No one knows about it aside from the two of them. Even Carlos is in the dark about it. And Flynn is clueless about that tiny fact, although she does keep pestering Julie if they're going to start dating.

"Inside the house. Doing her homework. Like I am." Julie has a lot more difficult classes, between her AP English and Honors Chemistry classes, Brielle feels as if she's doing nothing in comparison. Her classes are a breeze. Dance, Music, Calculus, Earth Science, Advanced Writing, and Drawing 1. Next semester will be harder with her drawing class switching to United States History, Advanced Writing to Music Theory, and Earth Science to Honors Chemistry.

"Lame. Come on, you're on page nine of ten. What else do you have to do?" He had this coming. Brielle pulls out her mile-high pile of finals homework, which consisted of finishing her final drawing, writing up a song to perform on the day of her final for music, a twelve-page review for Earth science, and a ten-page paper for writing. She also had to do a dance for dance class, but that didn't make the pile any bigger, just the mental list of things she had to do longer. "Oh."

"Yeah." Brielle stifles a laugh because aside from the drawing, which would probably take another three or four hours tops, and her calculus homework, her studying and work for finals was done. Except, Luke didn't know that.

"Still, you should play the piano to mimic Julie's part." This is the root of the discussion they've been having for the last half hour. "Come on, you would be so good at it." Just the way he says it makes Brielle cave in a second.

"Fine. But you owe me." Brielle says, before extending her hand to ask for help up from her spot on the couch and Luke's hand misses hers. He doesn't think he missed her hand, but that's the only explanation he can think of. "What song are we playing?"

"It's a new song. There isn't really a piano part yet since Julie's usually the one that comes up with the melody. And the lyrics are under development." So, there are no lyrics. What she's hearing is that she needs to create a melody to play so that Julie doesn't have to do all the work.

"Play what you've got and I'll see what I can do." Brielle listens as the boys play, forming her own melody, in her mind and the perfect lyrics to go along with it. Once they finish playing, she presses the keys of the piano, gauging where she wants to start the piano.

"The music of our life is written song by song
In between the pages where we all belong
The melody, the lyrics, the passion comes to life
This is the story we will write" Singing out a beautiful chorus, the boys can't even imagine picking up their instruments to muffle any of the singing coming out of her mouth.

"When did you come up with that?" Luke asks, leaning against the piano as Brielle blushes, shocked at their response.

"Just while trying to fall asleep one night." More like after one of the many times I've woken up in the middle of the night panting and sweating and can't fall back asleep, Brielle thinks. She's had plenty of trouble at night with trying to sleep, since the fear of dreams of her father hitting her was a very real fear. And very much a reality. Aliyah, much to Brielle's thanks, has never woken up when Brielle finally snaps out of her nightmares at two or three in the morning.

The nightmares weren't of things that have happened, but of these random scenes that just somehow appear in her dreams. Her father beating her up in a dark alleyway behind the Orpheum. A knife being jabbed into her foot a hundred times when she tries to run. Duct tape covering her lips as she begs for help. All things she's dreamt of that she wishes would go away.

Nobody knows about her nightmares, since she chooses not to show anyone how much she's hurting inside, how much everything in the last ten years has affected her. Aliyah has done enough for her to last a lifetime, she's not close enough to Oliver, and Luke has his own struggles, and she couldn't ask him to bear another one.

"Well, can we play with you this time?" Luke grabs his guitar, already ready to play along with her.

"Sure." Smiling widely, Brielle feels happier than she just was thinking about her nightmares, before restarting her part, remembering what she just played enough to play it again and write it down after the boys all get really happy because they have the perfect chorus and now just need a couple verses and a bridge.

As she writes the part for the piano, she looks up to see the door open and someone she doesn't recognize immediately, but has definitely heard about him enough to piece it together.

"Willie?" Brielle asks, louder than she thought she did because the guys are all confused, just seeing Julie opening the door. Blinking her eyes to get rid of what she thinks is just a hallucination, all she sees is Julie opening the door to the studio with her mom's tie-dye mesh shirt on, a white tank top, and a pair of white jeans.

"Willie isn't here." Alex says, but has no idea Willie poofed in the studio just as Brielle saw him, like he's done for weeks. It only took one visit for Willie to realize Alex couldn't see him and that he had lost the ability to see ghosts, which is what led him to research what crossing over really was. It probably wasn't healthy that Willie continued to watch Alex while he played on the drums, but to him, it showed that Alex was doing okay without him. "Are you okay, Brielle?"

Willie doesn't even realize she saw him for a part of a second, just ignoring everything that's being said.

"Yeah, I guess I... never mind." Brielle ignores what she just saw, and shows Julie what she was working on, which is now the last thing on her mind. Writing down the notes she remembers, Julie takes over as Brielle heads to the couch trying to wrap her brain around what she just saw.

How can I see ghosts, again?

Author's Note: Hi! Sorry this was so short, but I was trying to figure out how to address the things I needed to address and by the time I got through that, it didn't end up being long. I've not been having the greatest week, with a mid term, two tests, and a quiz in four of my five classes among other drama in my life and all I'm looking forward to is HSM:TM:TS Season 2, right now, which I plan to watch now. Maybe it'll put a smile on my face this week, because it's sucked. Hopefully, for your guys' sakes, the next few chapters will make up for these short ones.

Loves,

mistyrider921

~𝄞~