Ghosts {L.P.}

0:20

Ｅｐｉｌｏｇｕｅ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 0:30

Riya fumbled with the discs in her hands, shuffling over each other for the specific title of the movie scribbled over the white covers.

Her father was out covering someone's shift as per usual, rehearsals had been cancelled after Julie caught some sort of cold, and Riya had nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon than watch one of her favourite movies with one of the few people who could stand her singing every last song in the musical.

Once she finally found the disc, Riya gently set it inside the DVD player, the TV crackling to life while the low hum of the player mixed in with the cars down by the street.

There was only one thing missing, well, technically two.

Riya stacked the discs back in their respective places before turning around, only to yelp in surprise and stumble straight back into the stacked discs, nearly tipping the tall rack over.

She was officially only missing one thing seeing as Luke was already on her couch waving at her.

"Hey."

"Hey, you're an hour early, I'm not even done." Luke shrugged, leaning back on the couch while he extended his crossed legs towards the coffee table, careful to not place his feet on it seeing as he had earned quite a scolding from Riya last time he tried.

"Just pretend I'm not here." Riya rolled her eyes but did keep on track as if Luke weren't there, now only with the addition of not tripping over his long strewn legs.

She placed the bowl of freshly made popcorn on her side of the couch, rushing to gather her fluffiest blanket to curl underneath and tossing it over her spot before reaching for a stack of pillows they'd both need to be comfortable after hours of sitting in the same coil filled couch.

"Did Julie kick you out again?" Riya's apartment had recently become sort of a safe-haven for the guys, so she wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if Luke was early for once in his life because he was kicked out.

The first occurrence happened with Reggie, who kept trying to scare Carlos every time he went to use the bathroom in the garage. Next came Luke when he tried learning how to play the trumpet in the middle of a calm day. And most recently, it had been both Reggie and Luke together who decided to play badminton over Julie's keyboard and accidentally blasted one of the beats she was working on full volume for the entire neighbourhood to hear, that time, Alex had also joined in simply for solidarity.

Julie had yet to get angry at him, but Riya was just waiting for the moment the other shoe would drop and Alex would pop into her bedroom. She had even thought about investing in ghost-care packages at that point.

Luke nodded sadly, waving his hands dramatically around his face. "Apparently poking her every time she said no to writing a banjo solo for Reggie while she's out sick is breaking her boundaries."

Riya had to bite her lip to contain her laughter while she fluffed up the last of her pillows against the backrest of the couch. "I knew she'd regret being able to touch you guys eventually."

"I thought you didn't mind being able to touch us." Riya settled in her corner of the couch, holding one of her recently fluffed cushions by the seams.

"Only because I can do this." Before Luke could fully process what was happening, Riya sent her pillow flying into his face, Luke slowly blinking in response while she burst into a fit of laughter so strong she went to hold her stomach.