Finally Free -- JATP Luke x MaleOC

Chapter 6

That evening, the boys were surprised to hear of Jay's plan, but the air quickly changed to one of excitement.

"So are you gonna play with her?" Alex asked.

"No, I'm just helping her learn," Jay answered before Luke or Reggie could speak up. He had only known the ghost boys for a couple of days, yet he knew those two in particular would try pushing his buttons to get him to perform.

"Aw, come on," Luke said. "You got talent bro, show it off!"

"I'd feel better if you were up there with me," Julie said, looking up at Jay with pleading eyes. Oh, how he hated that look that could make him melt and do anything she wanted.

"I'll consider it," Jay sighed, earning a cheer from the boys and a smile from Julie. "Now let's get back to this. Start from the top."

The rest of the week seemed to pass by quickly with school becoming rather mundane to Jay. Sure, he still did well in class and kept his grades up, but all that was on his mind was the pep rally on Friday. Julie would be performing for an audience, she would get up the stage and play piano and sing for the first time in nearly a year. It was monumental for Jay, especially when not even a week ago he was telling her not to force anything or rush the healing process.

Rehearsal time with the ghost boys and Julie would start out as just that: practice. Julie and Jay would take the piano and work out the chord progressions, often with Luke over their shoulder. There were times where things would scale up to a full band performance of the song: Luke on electric, Reggie on bass, Alex on drums, Jay on piano, and Julie on the main vocals. Even though they knew they could never perform as a full band for an audience, those moments where the five of them came together and jammed out were the moments that Jay would remember forever.

Eventually, the rehearsals would devolve into simply "chilling with the boys." After finding out that Alex was gay, Jay happily informed him of the progress that was made during the twenty-five years he was gone, informing him of activist groups, new civil rights movements, and even of the Los Angeles pride parade.

"You need to take me to one," Alex said, giddy with happiness.

"Gladly," Jay said with a smile. He wanted to pat Alex on the shoulder but held himself back knowing that physical contact was impossible.

Reggie and Jay bonded over what Julie called "geek stuff." It started with a brief Star Wars reference that Jay had made while practicing.

"Wait, I get it!" Reggie had exclaimed, a large smile appearing on his face.

After that, Jay and Reggie talked a lot about the saga, mainly the movies that Reggie had seen since the more recent films had some...heartbreaking moments in them. It then grew from Star Wars to other comics and some games that Reggie had played. Jay promised to have a Star Wars movie night so that Reggie could catch up on everything he had missed over the past twenty-five years and the boy was bouncing with excitement.

And then there was Luke. The brown-haired boy spared no moment to convince Jay to perform with Julie at the pep rally. He had only heard Jay sing for a minute at most, but that was enough to convince him that Jay belonged on the stage.

"You and Julie would rock their socks off!" he'd say.

The other boys agreed that Jay should perform with Julie, but neither of them were as pushy about it as Luke was. He was naturally upbeat and fast-paced, and that only got amplified when music was the topic of conversation. Jay loved that he was so passionate about it, but he couldn't bring himself to play on that stage as easily as he was being asked to.

But when Friday finally came and the pep rally was about to begin, he looked up at the stage and felt a twang in his heart as his eyes rested upon the lone keyboard there. Julie, still reluctant on the plan, had gone to the music room to see if she could find Ms. Harrison and play for her privately, but Jay could see the teacher standing with the principal as they introduced Dirty Candy.