Healing - JATP Fanfic (Luke x OC)

Chapter 3

Surprise! I just wanted to post this today because the last few days haven't been great and seeing all of your guys reading this story brings me joy (I will still be posting another chapter Friday, don't worry).

"What's going on?" Nick asks himself for the thousandth time in the last two months, passing his fingers through his mother's shoulder. As much as he's tried to understand he can't touch living people, or whatever lingo ghosts use to refer to them as, Nick fails to remember that he can't touch his family all the time. He wants to scream that the Nick she sees isn't him, but she just thinks it's a "phase", that his actions are just hormones acting up, and is completely disregarding the weird spirit's oddball actions. At the very least, lacrosse ended the night before his body was taken over so whoever the guys that is currently inhabiting his body isn't ruining his chances at a scholarship. He needs that scholarship to go to a good university to study whatever it is he ends up studying. Not that he's picked what he'd like to do later in life, but he likes science and music, so maybe a combination of the two of those things.

"Mom, I miss you so much." Climbing onto the countertop, he leans against the wall, a tear sliding down his cheek and disappearing into the oblivion like all the millions of others. His little sister knows something is up with the new Nick, but she has no idea why. No idea someone else's spirit is inside him. He has to give that spirit that much credit. He's never slipped up on names or anything else, granted he required Nick to follow him around and feed him information until he knew everything he needed to know. Literally required.

Caleb is loving the new body since it's so agile and the kid is so popular that it's easy to get the gossip he needs. His mission is going according to plan. The boys are never going to stay lifers if he can help it. And he's definitely trying his hardest to keep them in the dark about everything until it's too late. It's not like anyone knows where his old pamphlets are from before he turned evil, but that's another story entirely.

And Nick's tried more than once to go back to where he belongs, his body, but it never works. The other spirit is too powerful.

"So, is this your family?" Willie poofs in next to him, startling the high schooler.

"Yeah. Any updates on what's going on?" Nick looks to him, hoping for any good news, but Willie has no good news. All he knows about is how to get the boys to fully cross over. Nothing about lifer's spirits repossessing their own bodies.

"No. I've scoured every document I can find. Hopefully, he just leaves on his own." Willie says, refusing to say Caleb's name. This is the most free he's been in years, and once Caleb finally leaves Nick's body, he'll have to stay at the club a lot more than he does now.

"So, what's the spirit's name, anyways?" Nick asks, for the hundredth time. Willie has refused to tell him for a very good reason. He can forget all about these few months in a couple years without a single thing tying him to the ghost world.

"Caleb." Willie, feeling extremely down on his luck because of all the information he just found out, doesn't even think twice about telling him, even though he told himself not to. Maybe it's good he finds out in case he becomes a ghost himself and then he knows to avoid Caleb at all costs.

"Hey, what's up?" Nick asks, wondering how his ghost friend is doing.

"Just other ghost drama. Nothing you need to worry about." Willie brushes him off, for a good reason. If Nick ever found out the band was made up of three ghosts, all hell would break loose. "So, you wanna go somewhere?"

"Where are we going?" Nick asks, before Willie takes his hand and poofs him to the beach where the boys used to go play for whoever was there. Just for fun. It's not like ghosts can even use money.