the lucky one || reggie peters

> thirteen

When Jo opened her eyes, she was in the garage. She turned around, expecting to be alone, but there were three boys standing in front of her. "No," she murmured. "No! This isn't how it was supposed to be!"

    Another round of jolts went through the boys and she ran to Reggie's side, helping him down to the ground softly. "Don't tell Julie," he said.

    "What?!"

    "Don't tell Julie," Luke reiterated, laying down on the ground beside his friends.

    "What exactly are you going to do, then?" Jo whined.

    "Just let us stay here..." Alex muttered. "We'll just be quiet."

    "Julie won't come out here," Luke assured.

    Jo shared a look with Alex, but neither of them objected.

    Reggie smiled up at her sadly. "Just come lay with me, Joey."

    Her eyes welled with tears as she lowered down to the wood floors beside him. "Reg..." she said quietly.

    He reached out and held the pendant of her choker. "Don't worry about it, Jo. We're just fine."

    Jo rested her hand on his chest as her lip quivered. "You can break the promise. I give you permission to break the stupid promise. Please... Just go to Caleb. We can be together and-"

    "Joey... I'm not going anywhere," Reggie whispered, running his finger down her cheek. "Look around you. We are together." Jo brushed her nose against his and let her hands fall to his shoulders. Reggie pulled Jo closer by her waist and wiped the hot tears that weaved down her cheeks. "How are you still so beautiful?"

    Jo scoffed. "Don't lie to me, Reg."

    "I'm not," he mumbled, pulling her closer until their lips brushed, so softly she thought she might've imagined it and for only a moment. Just then, they heard the doors of the garage creak open and Reggie turned onto his back to look over towards the girl who'd entered.

    Julie stood in the entrance of the studio space and sighed. "I... I know I already said this but, uh... thank you, guys."

    "You're welcome," Reggie replied like he couldn't help it.

    "Dude!" Luke scolded as Alex groaned. Jo only laughed through more tears.

    Julie ran over and turned the lights on, seeing the boys on the floor as Jo pushed up to a sitting position. Reggie moved his head into Jo's lap as Julie approached them slowly. "Wh-Why are you here? I-I thought..." Julie stuttered.

    Jolts rocked through the boys as they coughed and groaned. Jo helped Reggie to sit up further so he could lean back into her as she pressed a kiss to the side of his head.

    "I thought you crossed over! Why didn't you cross over?" Julie shouted.

    "I guess playing the Orpheum wasn't our unfinished business," Alex panted.

    "Point Caleb," Reggie joked, focusing on the feeling of Jo's fingers running through his hair.

    "We wanted you to think that we crossed over, so we pretended to. We just... we had nowhere else to go," Luke said, his voice breaking on the last words.

    "We thought you'd go straight to bed," Reggie said with a scoff.

    "Mm. Not all of us," Jo contradicted.

    "I knew you'd come out here, too," Alex added. "But nobody ever listens to me-"

    They were once again cut off by a jolt fracturing through them. Jo wrapped her arms tighter around Reggie's chest and buried her face in his shoulder. "I hate this," she muttered.

    Reggie reached up and ran his hand down the front strands of her hair. "Having you here is the only thing keeping me sane," he mumbled into her ear.

    "You have to save yourselves right now!" Julie sobbed. "Go join Caleb's club! Please! It's better than not existing at all."

    The boys pushed up from the ground, Reggie heavily leaning on Jo's side. "I already tried convincing them," she said quietly. "They're stubborn."

"Not stubborn," Luke argued, moving towards Julie. "There's just no music worth making, Julie, if we're not making it with you and Jo. No regrets," he added with a shaky breath.

In the heat of the moment, Julie lunged forward and captured Luke in a hug. "I love you guys," Julie sniffled. She soon pushed away from Luke, though, when she noticed how his skin was glowing. And that's when she noticed what was happening. "How can I feel you?"

"I... I-I don't know," Luke said. They cupped each other's faces in their hands and just enjoyed the feeling for a moment before Luke turned to Jo and the boys. "I feel stronger."

"Go," Jo encouraged, pushing the boys forward.

The other two joined the hug and the same happened as their bodies glowed. They brought their wrists to the center and watched as Caleb's stamp raised from their skin. "What do you think that means?"

"You're free," a small voice rose from behind them. They turned to see Jo with her hands on her cheeks, tears still streaming down them, but a beautiful smile stretched across her lips.

"Joey..." Reggie trailed off.

"Don't you worry about me. Not for a second," she laughed.

"Why don't we try that hug thing one more time, then?" Alex said, holding his hand out towards her. "This time with every member of the band." Jo's features softened as she pushed up from the armchair and moved towards the group. Reggie's arm looped around her waist and he pulled her into the warm group hug.

"I like this," Jo murmured as they all chuckled.

"Me too," Julie gushed. "We played the Orpheum! Whoo!" They all jumped around together, celebrating the little victory for the day.

>author's note
shit this is so short, but i didn't wanna lump this in w the last chapter bc it felt like this should stand alone. but i also didn't wanna mix the content from the show with whatever comes next

i also apparently thought i wrote something more to this but i didn't??? ig it's bc i hadn't totally decided what i wanted to do yet, so i'll just explore it later. anyway <3 yeah. until i get some inspiration to write more of this book, it's effectively on hold, but i didn't wanna leave you guys without a little reg and jo kiss ;)