Border To Heaven - JATP Luke

Part 23

After staying at Luke's parents' house for a while, we figure it's probably time to head back to the studio. Grabbing my hand, Luke walks us out to the front yard before we poof off to Julie's house.

"Whoa, Julie." He says, quickly dropping my hand.

I feel myself frowning down at our hands, but I push through and put on a blank emotion, as if it had no effect on me.

Julie looks up from her keyboard. "Grab your guitars. We got work to do."

"What made you come back?" Luke answers her, moving to grab his guitar.

"I realized how important music is to all of us. And we've lost so much already. We can't lose this too." Julie says, looking at me as Luke's back is turned. I give her a small smile and mouth a quick 'thank you'.

Luke hands me my guitar, which was sitting next to his, before looking back over at Julie. "Alright boss, where we at?"

She just laughs gently before focusing back on the keyboard in front of her. "Oh, and by the way, happy birthday."

I notice Luke blushing slightly at this. Don't know why, all she did was say happy birthday. I've said that to him heaps of times...

Alex seemed to notice my sudden discomfort and cleared his throat in Julie's direction, gesturing for her to continue.

"Let's go from the pre-chorus."

Alex looked back at me one last time, before counting us in. "One, two, three, four."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite that one little thing at the beginning, I'd say that was a successful band practice.

Julie and I walk in through the back door of the house, our arms linked, both of us humming the song we were working on.

"Oh..." I say, pausing as we come across Carlos. "What are you doing?"

He had his iPad open on some app, and it looked like he was scanning the room.

And I thought I was weird...

"Looking for those orb things. I'm telling you, this place is haunted. Every time I open my laptop it's on some rock music site. That ain't me. You know I'm all about the rap." He says, putting down the iPad.

"Reggie." Julie mutters under her breath next to me.

"I'm just trying to protect you." He says, having not heard her.

I grab an apple from the bench as I pass, Julie following close behind me as we go to head upstairs.

"Oh, I'd be careful in there. Dad has that look on his face like when google maps tells him to turn on the wrong street." I freeze in my tracks, making Julie run into my back.

Well shit.

"Yeah... I'm out."

"No no no, don't leave me!" Julie whines, tugging on my arm.

I take a bite from my apple. "Sorry, but I choose life."

She gives me a pointed look as if to say 'are you really that stupid?'

As a matter of fact, yes. Yes, I am that stupid.

I roll my eyes at her. "You know what I mean."

"That you don't want to die? What else would it mean?" Carlos adds.

Oop- I forgot he was here.

"You have no idea kid." I say, ruffling his hair and heading upstairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a solid five minutes, I hear someone coming up the stairs, into Julie's room, and slamming the door shut.

I think Julie may be a little bit upset.

Just a guess.

I grab my phone from the charger and shove it into my pocket before leaving my room and walking into Julie's.

"Oh my god! You're just as bad as the guys. Believe it or not, knocking is a thing."

"Not."

"What?" She asks, with a questioning look.

"You gave me an option. Believe it or not. I chose not." I explain.

She goes back to drawing on her microphone, completely ignoring me.

The silence is broken by a sudden ding.

Julie picks up her phone, chuckling slightly at the screen.

"Ooh, what is it?"

"Nick."

I raise my eyebrows up and down at her.

She grabs one of the many pillows from her bed and throws it at my head. Unfortunately for her, it goes straight through me and hits the door where there's currently a hand sticking through the middle of it.

I stare at the hand, trying to figure out which guy it is. "What are you doing?"

Reggie's head pops up where the hand was. "We're being classy."

He suddenly gets pulled back and Luke and Alex walk through.

"Why are you still here? We're going in like twenty minutes." Luke says, leaning on Alex.

Julie sighs, putting her phone down next to the microphone. "I lied to my dad, so now I'm stuck in my room all night."

"Yeah, but we were just at the venue. I mean, it's packed. Like, VIPs, managers. It's kinda crazy."

"What are we gonna do about my aunt? She's right downstairs." Julie points out, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"I'll take care of her." I say in a low voice, cracking my knuckles.

Julie looks at me, horrified, as Alex wraps his arms around me in some attempt to 'hold me back'.

"Your aunt." Luke says as if in disbelief. Yes Luke, aunt, that's a thing. "You're not taking the stairs."

Finally seeing what he's getting at, Julie nods in agreement. "Ok, let me get dressed. I'll meet you guys there."

"Want me to go with you?" I ask as the boys start poofing out one by one.

"Yes please. That would be great." Julie answers, standing up and moving to dig through her wardrobe.

"I'll see you girls there." Luke says with a wink as he pretends to jump out the window, poofing away in mid-air.

Time to look through the endless black clothes I have until I find something that actually looks decent...