Finally Free -- JATP Luke x MaleOC

Chapter 10

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that updates might be less frequent from now on since my Thanksgiving break has ended and I'm heading back to school and just generally getting busy again. Hope you all understand.

"Cuz we're standing on the edge of..." Luke was muttering to himself, sitting at the piano by himself. Julie was still inside the house with her dad and Luke didn't want to just barge in and say 'let's go finish our songs,' that didn't seem right. The boys had disappeared while he went to visit his mother, but to where, Luke wasn't sure. They had all gone to find their families before, but only his had remained in Los Feliz, for reasons that Luke didn't exactly want to think about for too long.

Luckily his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar blonde boy poofing into the studio.

"Where did you poof off to?" Luke greeted, his cheery nature having returned.

"Went out with Reggie," Alex shrugged as he responded. "Where did you go?"

"Needed to clear my head a bit before we got back to work," Luke fibbed easily, tapping the end of his pen against his journal. "Where's Reg?"

"Hey boys," Reggie said as he poofed in, making the other two boys smile.

"Talk about timing," Alex said.

"Well, now we just gotta wait for Julie," Luke said, tossing his pen down on his journal and standing from the piano bench, stretching back. He wasn't sure if ghosts still got sore muscles, but stretching never hurt anyone and it was a habit at this point.

Minutes later, the girl in question showed up with a million apologies to give.

"Sorry I'm late, I forgot we were in here," she said as she entered the garage. "I just got held up by my dad and Carlos and-"

"Relax, it's okay," Luke said with a smile. "It's not like we got much done while you were gone."

"Really?" Julie said, her interest peaked. "What were you guys doing?"

"Hey, we have lives too," Reggie said defensively.

"After-lives," Alex corrected, putting emphasis on the 'after.'

"We all went out for a bit," Luke summarized, twiddling his fingers while he debated whether to ask the question on his mind. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Alex give Reggie a look as they both recognized the gesture.

That obvious, huh?

"Say, Julie," Luke spoke as the girl made her way to the piano bench. "You haven't, uh...heard from Jay, have you?"

"Not all day," Julie said, shaking her head and giving a curious look. "He's typically busy on weekends."

"Yeah, busy studying," Luke heard Alex mutter, earning a glance from him before he turned back to Julie as she asked why he wanted to know.

"We asked him to join the band a while ago," Reggie explained.

"He probably said no, huh?" Julie sighed, knowing her friend.

"Actually, he said he'll consider it," Alex smiled, his words making Julie gape.

"Really?" she said. "You guys got him to say yes?"

"Not really a yes, more of a maybe," Reggie corrected.

"But that's still huge," Julie exclaimed, her face glowing. "Jay's always so busy with his own problems that he just avoids music half the time. I can't believe he might actually join the band."

"Well, let's just hope he doesn't regret his choice," Luke said. "Anyways, back to work?"

He changed the topic back to their music so that he could wallow in his thoughts for a moment. He wasn't sure what it was about Jay that made him feel like he belonged with the band. Luke could tell that Jay had a lot of pain, has a lot of pain in his heart.