Right From The Start

2

Julie could hear Carlos's laughter as she headed towards the studio. She walked into a peculiar sight; her brother was sitting on the couch looking at Reggie with a grin on his face.

"Do it again! That was so cool!" He let out a laugh.

Julie watched as Reggie poofed from the middle of the studio to the top of the balcony where Alex was standing.

"What have I missed?" Julie said. Her eyes met with Luke's across the piano and he gave her a shrug.

"You were taking so long so I decided to meet the rest of the band myself!" Carlos said, sticking his tongue out at his sister.

"I can see that." Julie gestured to Reggie who was currently wearing an ear splitting grin.

"Isn't it amazing Julie? If Carlos can see us now then I wonder if everybody else can!" Reggie was jumping up and down as if he was on a trampoline.

"That's actually what I want to talk to you guys about." Julie said as she plopped herself down by Carlos.

"That Carlos can see us?" Alex replied as he poofed in front of them. Reggie followed not soon after.

"That and sleeping in my room, which is weird by the way, we need to have another conversation about boundaries." Julie said, leaning back into the couch.

"Yeah we're not sure how the sleeping one happened to be honest." Luke said, rubbing his neck as he began to walk over to the group.

"We don't remember falling asleep. We just found ourselves in your room." Alex answered. Julie scanned his face to see if he was lying and found no trace of dishonesty. He was telling the truth.

"Okay so you guys are just weird pervert ghosts." Julie said, covering Carlos's ears. He didn't need to hear her language. The boy began to wriggle away from her.

"In our defense; we don't remember what happened!" Reggie held his hands up.

"Well we still need to figure out what's happened to you guys. You don't know if there's a ghost expert who knows about these things?" Julie asked as she removed her hands away from her brother's ears.

"Willie might know someone." Alex mumbled. Julie watched as his face seemed to darken when he mentioned his name.

"Alex?" She said reaching out to him and she was still surprised when her hand made contact. She rubbed his shoulder.

It took Alex a moment before he replied.

"I couldn't find him last night. He probably thinks I've moved on, but what if he ends up in trouble with Caleb? Caleb owns his soul, what if he does something to him? What if he's hurt? I need to find him." Alex rambled on burying his head into his hands.

Julie patted his back.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Do you want to go look for him?" Julie said as she began to massage small circles into his back.

Alex took a moment to calm himself before his anxiety overtook him.

"Yeah, if we want to get to the bottom of things. I think we need to try and find him." Alex looked at Julie. He wasn't smiling and looked more weary than anything.

"Do you want someone to go with you?" Luke asked, coming to join the pair of them.

Alex shook his head.

"It's better if I go alone. It'll give me some time to think." He said standing up tall and tried to give his friends the best show stopping smile that he could muster. It didn't quite meet his eyes.