Julie and the Phantoms Imagines

Past Mistakes (Reggie Peters x reader)

Prompt/summary:  Reader and Reggie broke up in 1995, then meet again as ghosts in 2020.

Word Count: 1,260

Authors note: I'm sorry if this is really sad, also special thanks to  for helping me come up with a title!

WARNING: Mentions of suicidal/reckless tendencies and borderline eating disorder. Please be careful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been six months.

Six months since I had last seen him.

I never even got a chance to apologize to him. Apologize for the way I acted that night. Now I never will.

His parents had invited me to his funeral a few days after the... accident, and I made sure I was there. A dress didn't seem appropriate. He would've laughed at the ridiculousness of the formal attire everyone donned for the funeral of the boy who was known for his leather jacket and slicked back hair. So I tried to wear something I knew he would want me to.

I didn't even make it through the service. The amount of guilt and grief made me run outside to my car and drive home. Tears flowed down my face while I tried my best to get home safely.

I became quite reckless after that.

Drinking every weekend. Driving like I was in a fast and furious movie. Eating and purging shitty food. Then it became eating nothing at all.

I knew it would catch up to me eventually, I just didn't think it would be today.

Six months after the love of my life died I was hospitalized.

It had started with my heart beating faster every time I stood up. Soon it became terrible pains in my chest that I couldn't get rid of. Then one day I woke up in the hospital.

The strange thing was I saw myself laying on the hospital table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that day in the hospital I floated up to... somewhere. All it was was a dark room. No furniture, no walls, no anything really. Just darkness.

It took me a while to adjust to it. Death is always something I had pondered but I never thought it could've been something like this. Just me and my thoughts. The last conversation I had with him kept replaying in my mind. There were so many things I could've said or done differently. Maybe if I had just apologized he wouldn't have gone out to eat before the show that night, maybe they would all still be alive. I would still be alive.

I was scared about potentially going insane from being alone for so long. The longer I thought about that the more I realized that I didn't know how long I had been in there. Besides, can the brain really go insane if there isn't a brain to go insane? I'm a spirit now after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My questions were answered, well... kinda, when I landed back in my room. Or it used to be my room at least. The paint hadn't changed, the pictures on the wall hadn't changed, but the furniture had been moved and boxes were stuffed and overflowing out of the closet. When I turned I saw the CD of Reggie's band playing in my old radio. Is that what brought me here?

The sound of it sparked one memory I didn't realize I had. Darkness as I laid still with the same pain in my chest I had felt before.

They must've played it for me in the hospital.

I couldn't stop the tears in my eyes.

I don't know what happened after that, but one minute I was in my house the next minute I was standing on the boulevard near the beach. In front of a restaurant that looked very new.

I was so confused. Obviously I was a ghost, but this didn't look like it was the year 1995. I ran over to the closest store and peeked into the newspaper holder.

June 17th, 2020.

25 years? Have I really been gone that long? I looked around the boulevard. Where am I? Where did I teleport to?

Too many questions swirled around in my head, I could feel the dull throb of a migraine starting as my heart beat faster in my chest.

I finally spotted a street sign. Fairview Blvd.

Reggie. I poofed to Reggie's house. Or where it used to be at least.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had found out a few things from walking around, Reggie's parents weren't in town anymore. I'm assuming they got divorced and moved after the death of their son. Alex's parents had moved as well. Luke's parents had stayed put. His room hadn't changed at all.

The rest of the day I spent wandering around trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. For some reason I could hear music coming from somewhere, but every time I got close it seemed to shift its location. Basically a game of marco polo that I wasn't enjoying.

I stayed at his parents house when I wasn't walking around, they were the only people from my life that I could find.

The music was still playing far away and it was slowly driving me insane. Finally I left the Patterson's house and walked around the streets of LA some more in search of the sound.

The garage I found was the loudest the music had gotten all day. It sounded so familiar but I couldn't place them at all. I sat outside just listening to the melodies that were no longer just a low mumble but now a full song. Eventually the music stopped. Silently I rejoiced in the fact I wouldn't have to hear it for a while. A group stepped out of the garage startling me from my thoughts.

"Guys that was sick, Julie I love that new lyric you wrote in the chorus," I heard a familiar voice say.

"I'm so happy with how it turned out, Flynn's going to love it!" the girl said, she turned to face the boys as they were walking away from the garage and spotted me, "Who are you?"

I looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone else here she could be talking to. The three boys standing with her turned and my jaw dropped.

"Reg?" I croaked out. I stood up from my spot and stumbled over before pulling him into a hug.

"(Y/n)? Oh my gosh it's you. How'd you get here?" he said.

"I died, in a hospital. I don't know where I went but then a few days ago I woke up at my house. I didn't know what all had happened, Reggie I was so scared," I sobbed into his shoulder.

He pulled me tighter into him, "It's okay, you're here now."

Luke patted Alex and Julie on the shoulder, "We should give them some privacy."

"What?" Julie protested as Luke grabbed her hand to drag her off, "But I wanna know who the dead girl is!"

"I'll tell you later!" Alex yelled as he followed behind them.

Reggie pulled back and placed one hand on my shoulder, one hand on my cheek.

"Reggie I'm so sorry. That fight was so stupid, I shouldn't have tried to hold you back like that."

Reggie sighed, "No baby it wasn't your fault. It was just a bad night for the both of us. I wanted to come back to you so bad but then we got tied up at the Orpheum and then..."

We both knew what he was going to say after that.

"Julie told me what had happened to you, she found your obituary," Reggie said, "Why would you do that to yourself (Y/n)?"

Tears welled up in my eyes again, "I don't know. I was in so much pain Reggie. If I had just gone to you before and if I had been there with you guys that night you wouldn't have gone to eat-"

"No," Reggie said, "You can't think like that. None of this was your fault okay?"

I nodded silently as he pulled me back into a hug.

"I missed you so much," he said.

I placed a kiss on his cheek, "I missed you too."