Wake Up| JATP

Chapter 9

When Nicole woke up, Reggie and Luke were lightly strumming on their guitars, though she guessed they had been playing whilst she was asleep, she was a heavy sleeper. "Hey Reggie, what do you think of this riff?" Luke gently strummed his fingers on the guitar, changing his hand position every so often. Nicole listened with a smile. "Sweet I'm feeling that and then I come in with a little..." He too, began strumming on his bass, adding to Luke's riff. "And then Julie comes in with her killer lyrics and Sunset Curve is reborn!" The door slammed which made Nicole become fully alert and fall off of the couch onto the floor. "Ow" She rubbed her back as Luke helped her off of the floor. "Hey are you ok?" She nodded her head and then sent Julie a glare who stared apologetically at her. "Guys, you aren't suppose to be out here playing alone" Julie walked closer to the two the male ghosts. "But we're not alone..." Luke put his arm around Reggie's shoulder with his usual dorky smile. "Cause we always have each other." Nicole smiled and her heart warmed at how happy Reggie looked, he was right, they will always have watch other. "Ugh." Julie unplugged their amps. "We had it on volume one." Luke argued and looked at Nicole for help, who only shrugged in return. "But we rocked it on volume 10, want us to play it again?" Gosh this boy was clueless. "Reggie, baby, she really doesn't, how about you come over here and I give you a hug?" The boy smiled and placed his guitar down before going over to give the blonde a hug. Luke stared at the two, his stomach dropping, why was he jealous? He wanted her to hold him that way. "Hey! You never call me baby!" He crossed his arms over his chest and Nicole simply raised an eyebrow at him, trying to cover her blush. "Ok can we get back on topic please? You guys can sort your relationship problems out later." Nicole choked on air and Luke stole a glance at her. "Uh we've actually been waiting for you to get home, we had a band meeting earlier, although Nicole was asleep through all of it." Luke teased. Nicole stuck her tongue out at Luke as Reggie patted her shoulder from where he sat on the couch. "And-" He pointed to Reggie who began to do a drum roll on his thighs. "-we wanna invite you to join Sunset Curve and no your not dreaming." Reggie got all excited, his usual giddy smile present on his lips and Luke grinned at the curly haired girl. Nicole was the only one to notice Julie's frown, her guess was that it was to do with Flynn and whilst she was eager to have Julie join the band, she knew that her friend would come first. 

"Oh." The boys faces fell in disappointment at her response. "Oh um she said oh, that's what you say when you get socks on your birthday, not when your invited to join the most epic band ever!" Luke scratched his head in confusion and Nicole got up from the couch walking in between the boys and Julie. "Guys, let her have some time, I'm guessing that things are still rocky between you and Flynn?" She turned to Julie who nodded. "Yeah and I'm sorry, I'm honoured but I can't think about anything but Flynn right now." Nicole nodded her head in understanding and stood next to Luke, their shoulders brushing slightly. "Yeah your in a tough spot, so you wanna join the band?" Nicole gasped and smacked Luke on the chest which made him stumble back slightly. "Read the room dude." Julie began to walk out and Nicole tried stopping her by grabbing her arm but obviously, it went straight through which made the blonde frown. "Oh come on we need you and you need us because you need music. We found this poem that you wrote, Reggie and I we added this really cool melody to it, it sounds awesome!" Nicole's eyebrows furrowed slightly, what  did she miss whilst she was sleeping? Julie turned around slowly, her eyes wide. "Where did you find that?" Luke pulled Reggie in front of him as he spoke. "Um definitely not your dream box." Nicole hit him on the chest again and stared at Reggie with a disappointing look which made him frown. "You went through my stuff?" Julie gasped. "Seriously Luke? Not cool man." Nicole shook her head and sat back  on the couch "Yeah we can do that now" Julie chased Luke around the piano in attempt to get her poem back, it was rather amusing to Nicole. " No, you can't, boundaries! Give it back!" Julie demanded and slammed her hands down on the piano. "No you need to realise how insanely talented you are." Luke jumped up onto the piano bench. "Listen to this, if somebody hurts yo-" Julie tried to grab the paper from him. Nicole felt bad for the girl, she knew what it felt like getting your privacy invaded. "If somebody hurts you, I'm gonna get hurt too, and my life, my life would be real low, flying solo" Nicole nodded her head to the beat, though she was disappointed that the boys had gone through Julie's stuff when she told them not too, she couldn't deny that it was a good song. "Oh oh." Nicole smiled at Reggie's input. "I wrote that about Flynn, when she was helping with all my mum stuff. I gotta go." Julie walked away and Nicole gave her a bright smile which she returned weakly. "Hey what about the band?" Julie walked out of the doors. "Oh I almost forgot, stay out of my room!" She slammed the studio doors shut. "Yeah we will if you join our band!" Nicole rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Your mad at me aren't you Princess?" Luke turned to look at Nicole his eyes practically begging for her answer to be a no. Nicole let out a heavy sigh, her arms dropping by her side. "You shouldn't of gone through her stuff Luke, she's a teenage girl, she needs privacy not some teenage ghost boy lurking around her bedroom!" Nicole didn't realise how close she was until she felt Luke's breath on her face. "I'm sorry Nicole." She turned her head to the bass player, her eyes softening. "It's ok Reg, just respect Julie's wishes alright? She was kind enough to let us stay here and she's the only way we'll ever be seen playing music again. Without her we would be 4  homeless ghosts." The boys nodded their heads sadly, she was right. Without Julie they were nothing, sure they would always have each other but it was nice to have a new taste, a taste of the 21st Century. 

Luke was lent against the piano, practising the song he had made out of Julie's lyrics. Nicole was stood behind him, constantly looking over his shoulder at the lyrics and chords so she could practice on her guitar. "Wait so, when she says deep dish is she talking about like pizza or?" Before Nicole could say anything she would regret, Alex poofed in, right on top of the piano. "Alex!" Nicole cheered glad to see her blonde friend again. He had a huge grin on his face, one she had only seen a few times before, There was a boy. "Oh hey man, where ya been?" Nicole put her head against Luke's shoulder which made his stomach erupt in butterflies. He looked down at her placing a small kiss on her head. "Um kinda everywhere yeah. I met a new ghost friend, answered a ton of questions." Nicole's eyes widened. She didn't know there were others. "Yeah like whether Julie's gonna join the band or not." Alex's gaze lingered on Luke for a second before he spoke again. "I mean we didn't really get to that but I think I know why we're here, all ghosts have like unfinished business, so we need to do our unfinished business so that we can cross over." Nicole's eyebrows furrowed and her smile fell. Cross over? If she did that who knows where she'd go, and she wouldn't be able to see Marley anymore. "Why would we do that? I'm just saying this is our second chance all we need to do is get Julie to play with us." 

Whilst the boys carried on talking about their new song, Nicole slowly slipped away going up to the loft. She couldn't stop thinking about what Alex had said. If she crossed over, she would miss everything that she had here and she would never see Marley again or Julie for that matter. She quite enjoyed her after life the way it was. Even if she wanted to cross over, what would her unfinished business be? That was the question that lingered in her mind.