Ghosted - Luke | Julie and the Phantoms

Chapter Nine

"Will you stop pacing?" I asked Alex. "You're creating a draft."

"I think he's practicing his model strut." Reggie told me and Luke as the three of us sat on the couch watching the blonde.

"He's so nervous, he's almost making me nervous." Luke said.

"Okay, you guys know I don't handle change well. Alright, death! That was a change. Okay? Then we became ghosts. Alright? Another change. And now we can be seen whenever we play with Julie." Alex told us. "Big freakin' change!"

"Yeah, but it was a good change." Luke replied. "With Julie, we can play on stage and be the band we never got to be. Come on. I mean, you gotta be down for that."

"Alright, yeah. I mean, who wouldn't be?" Alex asked. "I just- I wanna figure out why."

"Forget why." I said as I stood up. "I say you ask Julie to join your band." I told the boys as I looked at each h one of them. "When you played with her at school today, you guys sounded amazing. And if it were me, I'd do it. You don't know what I'd give to be able to be seen again. Don't throw that chance away."

"I agree." Reggie smiled as he and Luke rose to their feet. "I mean, think about it. With a new lead singer, this band would be legendary."

"Hey, I'm our lead singer." Luke frowned.

"Dude, that girl has the voice of an angel, and she can make us visible. Without her, we're just like elevator music."

"You don't gotta be so mean about it." I couldn't help but smile as I watched Luke pout at Reggie as Alex started to pace again. "And we're on the runway again." He exclaimed.

"Okay, I'm sorry, alright? I just... I gotta go clear my head."

"Alex." I frowned as the boy walked over to the door. He then tried to grab the handle but it went straight through his hand.

"Dude, you're a ghost. Just poof out." Reggie told him.

"Don't tell me how to ghost!" Alex cried before he poofed out.

***

"Guys, what do you think of this one?" Luke asked before he started to strum on his guitar. I smiled as I listened and I picked up the guitar that used to be mine.

"That's good but what about this one?" I asked as I played a slightly different tune.

"Sweet. I'm feeling that." Reggie grinned as Luke began to play his guitar at the same time as me. "Then I come in with a little base." Reggie then began to strum.

"And then Julie comes in with her killer lyrics." Luke smiled.

"And Sunset Curve is reborn." Reggie said. I then stopped playing as the garage door opened and Julie walked in.

"Guys, you aren't supposed to be playing out here alone." Julie told them.

"But we're not alone because we always have each other." Reggie said as Luke put his arm around him. Julie scoffed.

"But we had the volume level on one." Luke said as he pulled his arm back.

"But we rocked it on volume ten. You want us to play it again?" Reggie asked.

"I don't think she does." Luke whispered before turning to Julie. "We've been waiting for you to get home. Okay, so we have some pretty major news to tell you. We had a band meeting earlier, and... we wanna invite you to join Sunset Curve. And no, you're not dreaming." Luke exclaimed.

"Oh." Julie frowned.

"Oh, uh... Oh, she said, 'oh', um..." Luke frowned. "That's what you say when you get socks on your birthday, not when you're invited to join the most epic band ever."

"Sorry. I'm homered, but I can't think about anything but Flynn right now. She's still mad at me for lying. She hasn't even texted me back." Julie said.

"Yeah, you're in a tough spot." Luke said. "So, you wanna join the band?"

"Read the room, dude." Me and Julie said at the same time as Julie headed towards the door.

Luke frowned at me before turning at looking at Julie's back. "Oh, come on!" He exclaimed. "We need you, and you need us because you need music. We found this poem that you wrote, and we- we added this really cool melody to it. It sounds awesome." I then saw the look on Julie's face as she turned around.

"Where's you find that?" She asked. Luke then pulled Reggie in front of him for protection.

"Definitely not your dream box." He replied.

"You went through my stuff?" Julie shouted before chasing Luke around the room.

"I know, but..."

"Yeah, we can do that now." Reggie smiled.

"No! No, you can't!" Julie told him. "Boundaries! Give it back!" Luke then stood on the piano stood and looked at Julie who had stopped running.

"No." He told her. "You need to realise how insanely talented you are. Okay? Listen to this. If somebody hurts you, I'm gonna get hurt too." Luke reas before he began to sing. "My life, my life would be real low, zero. Flying solo."

"It's a killer melody." Reggie told the girl.

"I wrote that about Flynn when she was helping me after Sophie died." Julie said. Luke and Reggie's eyes glanced at me for second and I held my breath. "I gotta go." Julie then headed for the door.

"Hey, what about the band?" Luke asked her.

"Oh... I almost forgot. Stay out of my room!" Julie shouted before shutting the garage door. Luke the followed the girl and put his head through the door.

"We will if you join our band." He told her.