Oozing Chemistry

12th Thing's 12th

Excitement fills the café, and the five of us bow, the boys and I flashing out of existence before we could stand back up. I scream and bounce up and down, not believing what just happened, and I jump at Reggie, wrapping my arms around him and not able to control myself whatsoever.

He tenses at first but eventually loosens, slowly wrapping his arms around me. I let go and pull away, but his face is so close I can feel his breath. I can see small specks of silver glistening in his blue irises. His giant boyish grin slowly recedes to a small, kind smile, and I'm frozen in place.

"Hey!" Luke shouts, and I jump back away from Reggie, his hands instantly retreating to his hair and neck as I bite the inside of my cheek, hiding beside Julie. Luke hops up to sit on the bar behind us and points to a woman in a gray pantsuit walking toward us. She must mean business. "Whoever Carrie was trying to impress is coming this way."

"Wait! Who should do the talking?" Reggie panics, and I sigh, the boys giving him an "Are you kidding me?" look as Julie turns around. "Right. Julie. Julie."

"You got this," Luke assures her, and she takes a deep breath. Though, as soon as the potential manager introduces herself as Andi Parker of Destiny Management, Julie's dad enters the premises and shatters our chances.

Ray drags her straight home, and by the look on his face, I can tell he's beyond upset. The boys and I poof back into the studio, and I instantly go up to Julie's room to find her actually kind of happy.

"Uh, you don't look mad," I point out, and she laughs, shaking her head.

"I told my dad I'm in a band. We're good. He just wants to know next time."

I stare at her, unbelieving. "You just... It was that easy?"

"Yeah," she laughs, then she closes her mouth and gazes at me, almost as if she's studying me. "Can I ask you a question?" She takes my silence as a response to continue and starts playing with her fingers in her lap. "How'd you get into music? I know your dad... Like my mom... But what made you decide you wanted to learn to play?"

This is an easy, honestly answer. I know that immediately. "I didn't at first. It took a couple years before I even looked at a guitar. Then when I was adopted by Bobby's parents, I knew it was time to face my biggest fear because he literally had a wall of guitars, and I'd hear him playing almost every night. Eventually, I just walked into his room, demanded he teach me, and the rest is history. Bobby taught me how to keep a beat. Luke really taught me how to master a six-string."

"And piano? None of the boys know how to do that," she points out, and I take a seat beside her on her bed.

"Once I'd mastered guitar, I figured I'd learn something the boys can't play. That way, I can help if they ever needed me. I was basically the fifth member of Sunset Curve," I laugh, remembering all those times I had to fill in because one of them was sick or broke a bone. Bobby was extremely clumsy. "The song we sang tonight I actually co-wrote with Luke."

Suddenly, I hear giggling come from downstairs, and I know something's up. I bid Julie a farewell, rolling my eyes as she laughs, and join the boys and their single brain cell in the living room. Unfortunately, my instincts are correct.

"You can't hide forever, ghosties," Carlos, Julie's younger brother, whispers as he explores the couch, examining the room through an app on his iPad. Julie's told me all about apps. There's one for everything, I swear.

And when Carlos thinks he gets something, it's his aunt ready to flip on the lights. I wince and cover my eyes. Seriously? Even ghost eyes take time to adjust to bright lights?

"For the last time, mijo," she says, approaching him and more than ready to take his iPad along with any dreams of catching a ghost he may have. "Ghosts are not real."