Ghosts {L.P.}

6:15

Ｇｈｏｓｔｓ Ｇｉｖｅ Ｏｕｔ
Ｔｈｅ Ｂｅｓｔ Ｈｕｇｓ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 3:19

No matter how much she begged the entire walk back to Julie's house, neither Julie nor the guys budged, Riya wasn't allowed to go home and change, they'd have to rehearse for some gig she was only barely informed of as soon as possible, which meant no detours for Riya to change.

However, Riya could admit with a gig fast approaching for the following night, her vanity being put on hold wasn't the end of the world; they would need all the help they could get, especially considering they were still missing one guitarist/lead singer.

Which, speaking of said lead singer, Julie may have not let Riya take the bus all the way home to change and then back to her house, but she had no qualms with making a slight detour towards a cozy shop near her house to acquire a gift.

After all, what was a birthday without a gift? Even if the birthday-boy was a ghost.

Once they finally set up in Julie's garage, it took them little to no time before they began rehearsing the same song over and over again.

It was what Riya called a quick song, not necessarily because of the timing but because it took her, Luke, and Julie the grand amount of two hours to write and compose in its entirety. In Riya's personal opinion, it wasn't their best song, but nothing a little polishing in rehearsal couldn't do.

Which Julie only came in to do with her beautiful vocals and harmonies alongside Riya to take the quick song into a fully fleshed out harmony decent enough to play at a club full of talent scouts.

"Marching on proud. Turn it up loud. 'Cause now we know what we're worth."

Riya only got to strum once along the vibrating strings of her guitar before being interrupted by a poof behind her, Luke had shown up finally.

His eyes were no longer watery or red, not a sign of splotchiness on his face. If Riya hadn't seen him cry first hand, she wouldn't have believed Luke had cried at all. His hair wasn't as disheleved as it had been in his home, or his posture as slumped, like he was trying to bury all those feelings of hurt under the carpet.

Riya stared at him trying to find those feelings just to make sure she hadn't hallucinated spying on Luke inside his home, which made her stare last for far longer than a normal stare should have.

"Whoa, Riya." She shook out of her daze while Luke pushed himself up from the armchair he had landed on, towering over Riya while staring in the same astonished manner.

Riya had stared to try to find some deep feeling of hurt, Luke stared to find a feeling of regret for being present or any sign that he had truly gone insane and was starting to hallucinate his friend where she wasn't.

Neither found what they were looking for.

"Hey." Riya spoke in a whisper with a mixture of a squeak and a whimper, unable to break away from Luke's scrutinizing stare.

He appeared to be inspecting every last inch of her face, the smile lines invisible against her skin when she wasn't grinning, the short yet abundant lashes framing her eyes, even the downturn of the edges of her parted lips while she stared at him with absolute wonder.

Neither truly believed they could look away once they locked on one another.

The stares were interrupted by a sudden clang which made Riya jump away, hand raised over her shoulder ready to attack, only to find Alex with a bashful smile holding on to one of his cymbals, drumstick clattering over the high tom. The drumstick had slipped past his fingers.