Revolution that's been dancing in the rain (Book 1)

18. Willie? I'll kill him.

(Lukes POV)

I follow after Jessie all the way to a small forest, in on a dirt trial.
One made by walking it over and over again for years
I stop in my tracks when I see a clearing, empty apart from a rectangle made out of medium sized rocks covered in moss on the ground and an old skatboard stuck in the ground at the top.
There's flowers planted inside the rectangle and little decorations.
If I didnt know any better I'd think it's a makeshift grave.
I duck behind a tree and watch as she stits next to the skateboard and starts talking to herelf,
or whoevers burried here.
It feels wrong to stay but I need to talk to her.
I walk up to her and I can hear her talking
"-just like you, Its infurating" she laughs lightly tears in her eyes making them glisten even in the darkness
"Jessie" I say softly and she snaps her head up to me
"Luke" She almost shouts panicked "What are you doing here, were you listening to me"
"Look I've a feeling this is personal, and I didn't hear anything so I'm going to go right after I say this"
"What"
"Come home, back to the studio. Julie misses you, we all do"
She looks down at the ground and starts fidgeting with the dirt "I can't"
"Why not"
"I don't deserve her"
"What are you talking about"
"I was horrible, she didn't deserve that"
"She'll forgive you"
"How do you know"
"Would you forgive her?" She snaps her head up to face me a look of confusion on her face
"What" she asks me so softly that I almost don't hear her over the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the trees.
"If the roles were switiched. Would you forgive her"
"In a heartbeat" She says immediately
"Then give her the same chance"
I leave letting her be and have her privacy.
Maybe I should visit my parents again, before its too latte to
I think to myself and poof there.

(Jessie POV)
I make my way up the Molina's walk way as the sun sets

I head for the house first rather then the studio hoping to catch Julie without the boys,
but I'm greeted with no such luck.
Julie and Luke are stood on the front pouch standing closely,
facing each other and staring into each others eyes.
I turn on my heel
This was a bad idea
I can't do this, I can't come back and apologise to Julie for my shitty behavior when I'm goning to be coming back to the exact behavoir that's making me act this way.
I can apologise and feel as guilty as I wan't.
But to come back and continuously lie to by best friend, the girl who's been a sister to me.
I don't think I can do it.
But as I go to leave I'm stopped by a familiar and horrifying sound, followed by a grunt of pain.
I turn to see Luke on the ground wincing in pain.
"LUKE" I shout running to and kneeling next to him
"What was that? Are you okay?" Julie asks from behind me
"What happend, why are you being jolted" I ask concerned that the answer will be what I think it is
"We did something that we shouldn't have. The night we missed the dance, we met this ghost, and he put a curse on us"
"Where did you meet him?"
"At a club"
"Please tell me it wasn't the Hollywood Ghost Club" I beg
"How did you know?"
"Dammit Luke, how did you even find that place?"
"Alex met this skater ghost, he brought us"
"Willie?" I demand to know
"Jessie how do you know all this"
"Whats going on" Julie asks confused and worried
"Luke was his name Willie?" I demand again needing to know
"Yes"
I stand up and storm off
"Jessie" Julie calls after me
"Where are you going?" Luke asks, pulling himself from the ground
"I'll kill him" I shout back going off to find the skater ghost.

It doesn't take long to find him along the beach, skating with some of his friends
"We need to talk" I state stepping in front of his board
He stumbles to stop in time falling through me onto the ground
"Oh your pissed"
"Yeah I am" I say through gritted teeth
I point to a dark ally between two nearby stores
"Go. So I dont look like a crazy person"
"You are crazy" He says but follows me never the less
Theres a dumpster in the ally with a piece of pipe lying on top of it
"Never thought you'd be talking to me again, well not for a few years at least" He says as I pick up the pipe, his back still to me
I hear the distinctive sound of ghosts appearing a bit behind me but ignore it as I start hitting Willie with the pipe
"Ow what the fuck, cut it out, Jessie stop"
"WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. WRONG. WITH. YOU." I shout hitting him between each word
The pipe is quickly pulled from my hand
"What going on here" I don't need to turn to know that the three boys now stand behind me
"Its okay Alex" Willie huffs out "She just has some things she needs to sort out with me, don't ya Essy" He smirks
"Don't call me that" I lunge at him grabbing hold of the skateboard in is hands and shoving it full force into his gut
"Okay, I deserved that one" he groans
"Wait, how do you two know each other?" Alex asks confused
"How do you know her" Willie asks mirroring his confusion
"Not important"
"Shes friends with Julie" Reggie explains in his usual helpful manner
Its hard to be mad at him but I do wish he didn't say that
"Woah your Julie is their Julie" he laughs and I shove the skateboard back into him
"Okay what was that one for"
"What the hell is wrong with you, are you seriously still so selfish that you continue to bring innocent people to Caleb for him to destroy."
"Oh that" he looks down
"Yeah that. What did he give you this time a new board"
"Hey stop, I messed up. I know this, we already talked about it" he motions towards Alex
"Messed up, you didn't mess up this is just who you are. You always do this"
"You can't always blame me, I'm not the one at fault for"
"Stop" I cut him off "Don't"
"Oh do your new friends not know about"
"SHUT, UP" I shout "You do not get to talk about him, you're one of the reasons he's dead"
"I'm not the one who left"
"Exactly, you where there, you should have helped him, you should have stopped him"
"You weren't even there"
"Beacuse no one told me what was gong on, it took you two fucking years to tell me he died"
Tears are now rolling down my face but I ignore them
"And now you're trying to kill these guys"
"You know Caleb would have found them eventully"
"You just sped up the process"
"You know what he's like, you know what he's capable of. I had no choice"
"No, you always have a choice. You choose wrong"
"Jessie"
"Admit it, own up to your god damm mistakes.
You brought them to him, you did, no one forced you to do that"
"I know that okay, I fucked up I know"
"Well what are you going to do about that" I ask coldly stepping towards him
"I, what can I do"
I scoff "Of course, typical Willie"
I turn, walking past the boys
"Jessie where are you going now" Luke calls after me
"If he won't do something, I will" I call back
Whatever I do probaly won't go well for me, but I have to do somthing.
After all I could have stopped this,
I could have protected them.
Willie for once is right.
Despite the fact that he brought them to Caleb,
He would have found them eventullay.
He can't let such powerful ghosts be free,
He needs them under his control or dealt with,
And I of all people know that best.

"Jessie it's been two days what's going on" Julie asks me
"Where are the guys?"
"With Willie"
I scoff "Of course"
"He's helping us get into the Orpheum tonight"
"To pass over?"
"You don't seem confident"
"It's very rare, like get struck by lightning wearing rubber rare, that multiple ghosts have the same unfinished business"
"Okay thats it, what's with you? 10 days ago you disappear for a week with no word, you show back up covered in brusies and now all of a sudden you know all about ghosts and can see other ghosts. Explain, any of it"
I take a deep breath, she deserves to know, to know everything.
But how can I tell her all my secrets if I can't even tell her I like Luke,
objectively thats nothing compared to the rest."
Right?
"Well?"
"I don't know where to start" She sits next to me on the couch
"What happened the night of the party, why did you leave?"
"I slept with Ronnie" I blurt out
"Oh. Isn't she dating someone?"
"They were broken up, they got back together but they were broken up"
"Oh I'm sorry I know you liked her"
"That's the thing, I knew she was straight I didn't expect anything.
I should have been loving it but the whole time I was with her I was thinking of"
I stop
This is it, if I were to tell her now would be the time,
tell her that I'm helplessly falling for the guy she likes,
the first person who's made her happy since Rose died,
the guy who got her back into music,
who's about to leave forever against his will and she'll never get to see him again.
"Of who, Jessie?"
"An ex"
What am I doing am I really going to talk about him, just to get out of telling her about Luke
"Which ex"
I guess I am
I swallow hard and take a deep breath
"He was my first, my only love, he passed away a few years ago"
"Hon, I'm so sorry why didn't you tell me"
"It was personal I didn't want to talk about it, still don't"
"Okay, but why did that make you not come home"
"He was a musican, a guitarist. He's the one who taught me. The boys remind me of him and I just needed some space, especially from Luke. I just needed a break from being reminded of him"
She holds my hand
Man I feel guilty
"What about the whole Willie, Ghost club thing, how do you know about that"
"Ya we'd like to know that too"
I turn and see the three boys standing a foot to my left
"How long have you been there?"
I ask but I can see on Lukes face that the answer is too long, weather he realises I like him or he thinks I'm sick of him, it's not going to be pleasent to deal with.
"Willie wouldn't tell me how you know him, how you know any of this stuff"
"Alex"
"We deserve to know"
"Deserve? What makes you deserve anything"
"I just mean it affects us" He back tracks
"Willie and I are old friends, I don't know why I can see him but I can, and if you demand information from me again were going to have a problem, got it Mercer?"
"Wait if you guys are back does that mean Willie did it,
did you talk to them,
did they watch,
did they like us,
are we playng tonight,
can someone answer me,
why is no one talking?"
Julie rattles off, I don't even think she took a breath.
I'm grateful for her changing the subject
"Woah" Reggie says "Thats a lot of qustions"

"Just breath Jul's"
"Luke you wanna take this one"
Still looking disgusted Luke begins to answer Julies qustions
"It's fine, everythings fine."
"Ya you should be getting a call right about, now"
Alex points at her phone which does not ring
The three boys look up at her hopeful, Lukes cute smile distracting me from the fact that the producers didn't ring Jul's, yet.
"Okay right, now"

They look down again still no call
"Do you think" Julie starts panicking
"Now" I clap my hands hoping to distract or make her laugh but to my surprise the phone actually rings
"Whoah I though we had ghost magic" Reggie says impressed, and the only one not mad at me.
"Jul's" I nudge her as she still hasn't answered the phone
The boys freak out making wild gestures "go go"
She answers the phone
They all start celebrating as they get booked for the gig, Reggie and Luke picking up Alex spining him around
"We're playing the Orpheum baby"
"Ya I'm swimming" Alex shouts pretending to swim in the air
I laugh at Julie and the boys, no matter what, I'm going to miss having them around
I look back down at the books on the table that I was going through.
So far no luck in finding another way to save the boys and with time running out I'm starting to get desperate.
As the band celebrates and begins discussing what they'll play I sneak out of the studio in hopes of findng some answers before they're gone forever.