Ghosts {L.P.}

3:55

Ｇｈｏｓｔｓ Ａｒｅ
Ｄｉｓｔｒａｃｔｉｎｇ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 3:52

Julie cleared her throat to clear some of the awkward tension hanging around them. She knew what was going on, but chose not to comment on it for the moment and instead focused on the one common language they all shared, music.

"Actually, I was meaning to ask if the both of you could help me with something," Both settled in on Julie, their reddening cheeks cooling off into a normal tone as she pulled out a folded piece of paper which gave Riya flashbacks to Bright.

"My mom and I started writing this before she..." Riya settled her hand over Julie's shoulder as comfort. She better than most knew what it was to lose a mother who left behind bits and pieces of memories in little songs strewn around the place.

When Riya first found her mother's songs she cried for days, holding them close to her chest as if they'd bring back the warmth of her mother's embrace to save her from the cold air of her empty life, but they didn't. It still didn't make any of them less important, Riya still treasured them with her entire heart and knew how hard it was to share such a special object with the world.

"We started this song together, and now I want to finish it with you guys."

"Let's get started then." Julie perked up almost instantly, setting up her mother's song atop the piano while she settled her fingers into their respective placements.

"I have the chorus and a couple of unfinished verses, what I can't figure out is the pre-chorus."

"Play it, and we'll go from there." And so, just as Edge of Great, Julie played her mother's song over and over again.

The melody was beautiful, with a slowly rising chord progression which perfectly suited Julie's voice style, her mother knew what she was doing when she composed the song. However, Julie was right, something about the lyrics in the original pre-chorus didn't quite fit, it sounded too rushed to keep up with the slowly escalating melody.

Riya chewed at her lip, distantly gazing at Julie's moving fingers as she played the pre-chorus once more.

"And it's one, two, three, four times.
That I'll try for one more night..." Julie trailed off before ending up humming the tune instead, words failing to fit into the necessary mould for the song.

"Play it again." Luke requested, fully laying across the piano with his hands holding his chin up. If they were all machines, they would've started to sputter and need a check-up, their creative juices running out after hours spent on Edge of Great and now trying to solve another song.

Being a musician was going to give Riya a permanent headache.

"And it's one, two, three, four times.
That I'll try for one more night..." Luke raised his eyes from their spot staring at the piano to look at Riya instead. Her brown eyes were unfocused, but he could still tell she was determined simply by the heavy furrow of her nose in concentration and the fire lit behind her eyes.

"Light a fire in my eyes." Luke sang out quietly while Julie stopped playing the pre-chorus. Coming to the same realization Luke and Julie had, Riya came back to the living world rather than her thoughts, urging Julie to play again, to which she complied.

"And it's one, two, three, four times.
That I'll try for one more night. Light a fire in my eyes..." Julie stopped playing, expectantly looking up at Luke, who was still nodding along to the music with a happy smile. Only upon realization that her and Riya were waiting for the last lyric to tie the piece together, he shrugged.