Work Text:
“The feel of the crowd, growing loud, shouting our names,
The feel of the wind, rushing in, blowing us all away,
The feel of a kiss, on your lips, adrenaline in our veins…
Looking at where we are now, it’s hard to have regrets,
‘Cause so many moments brought us here, and I’m living for it.”
Luke’s hands stilled on the guitar, but the vibrations of the last note still lingered. “So, what do you think?” he asked Julie, feeling slightly more self-conscious than usual.
“That we’re going to have to limit the number of our songs with ghost puns in them,” she joked, afternoon sunlight shining through her dark curls, turning her hair into a halo. “What if we were to add a little syncopation between the—” she pointed to part of the pre-chorus.
“Hmm, that could be interesting—give it kind of an echo effect.”
“And then if we all come back together for ‘I’m living for it’….”
“Yeah… Yeah. Maybe acapella for that line,” Luke muttered, adding notes that were even more illegible than the rest of his handwriting as he heard what she was describing in his head—the crash of voices and instruments suddenly smoothing out, going from chaotic to clear. It sounded amazing.
Then again, that’s what Julie did—turned the dial up from 10 to 11. He’d written Sunset Curve’s songs by himself for so long, and they were great. He wasn’t going to pretend otherwise—especially when they had funded Bobby’s rise into a complete poser. But the back-and-forth debate that he had with Julie—the meeting of their two different musical backgrounds—produced something so fresh and exciting that he came away feeling almost the exact opposite—close to humbled.
And the idea that, by all accounts, the two of them shouldn’t have met—that this music should never have been created…. Well, he’d say it made him die a little on the inside, but Julie was right about the ghost puns getting out of control.
/////
Somehow, two hours passed by in about thirty seconds, which they only became aware of when Alex and Reggie popped up.
Suddenly, Luke realized how close he and Julie were—her sitting on the piano bench, trying out a tune. Him, standing behind her, but leaning forward. Palms flat on the bench on either side of her hips, his chest to her back, singing along almost straight into her ear.
He pulled himself away quickly, avoiding his friends’ suggestive gazes.
Although… a glance at Julie showed she looked similarly flustered, so he wasn’t going to be too embarrassed about it.
“So, whatcha working on?” Reggie asked.
“Julie’s got to do a showcase for school in a couple of weeks. We thought we’d come up with something original.”
“Speaking of school…. I should get to homework,” she announced, and just by the way she groaned on the final word, Luke knew it was Calculus.
“Then I’ll try not to be too loud when I’m kicking Carlos’s butt at Mario Kart,” Reggie exclaimed. Ever if the youngest Molina still couldn’t see the guys, that didn’t stop him and the bassist from becoming best buds. It was cute, mostly, even though they all worried what would happen if Ray came home unexpectedly one evening and saw a game controller floating in mid-air.
“Haven’t you lost every single time you’ve played?” Julie asked, swinging her backpack off the floor and onto her shoulder.
“True—but that’s all about to change today. I can feel it,” Reggie insisted, walking through the other half of the garage door while Julie opened her side manually. Pretty soon, their voices faded into the distance.
Reluctantly, Luke put his guitar back on the stand, echoes of lyrics still in his head.
Alex picked up his notebook. “The feel of your lips, huh?” he recited, giving him a look.
“That’s not… It just fit the verse,” Luke insisted, snatching the notebook back.
“Oh, come on, you can’t still be pretending you don’t have feelings for her,” Alex said, exasperated.
Luke stared down at his scribbles. “No. I’m not,” he promised. “And I’m pretty sure she’s into me too, but—”
“Trust me. As someone who used to pay way too much attention to which girls had their eye on you, she definitely does…”
Luke’s face split wide into a smirk. “Jealous, were you?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows.
Alex rolled his eyes. “Definitely. Until we actually tried dating and I realized how annoying you are.” He started to head for the loft, where he spent most of his time in the studio. “Give me a warning when you actually tell Julie about us, alright?”
“Uh, why would I do that?”
Alex peeked over the railing. “Because she has a right to know. And because someone—probably Reggie—is going to slip and tell her eventually.”
“You don’t think she’ll be weird about it, do you?”
“About you being bi or us dating?”
Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “Both, I guess.”
“No to the first one,” Alex’s voice was confident. “But I can’t really say about the second. I mean, she’s super cool and she loves us, but I doubt she’s gonna be thrilled your tongue’s been in my mouth.”
“Well, I wouldn’t put it like that!” Luke sputtered.
“Good. Because that would be idiotic of you. Just say it was a month-long fling and we got over it,” Alex shrugged, stripping off his jacket and hanging it off one of the posts.
Luke sunk onto the couch, frowning in thought.
“Hey, Alex?”
“Hmmm?”
“What did I screw up on anyway?” he asked, expression concerned.
Alex leaned over the railing again, his face mirroring Luke’s. “Um… you didn’t,” he reminded him, confused. “We just weren’t it. You know that. That’s why we both decided to break up.”
“Well, yeah, and it’s awesome that our relationship didn’t get messed up afterward. But… I can’t count on it to work like that every time. And this thing with Julie, it’s already complicated as it is. I don’t want to say something or do something that’s gonna drive her away and ruin the band. So, come on…. I’m giving you a full-access pass to tell me everything I did that made you nuts. Did I push too much? Order too many things with garlic and onions during dates? What?”
“You know we can’t eat, so any food stuff is kinda moot now, right?”
“I don’t know. I got onions on that hot dog right before—”
“Stop right there,” Alex protested, holding up a hand. “I do not want to think about us having perpetual hotdog breath, thank you very much.”
“And here I thought that’s why Willie gave you that nickname.”
Alex chucked a pillow at Luke’s head—though the guitarist was able to dodge it last minute.
“Come on. Give me something, Man,” Luke pleaded, even going so far as to pull out the puppy dog eyes.
“Those don’t exactly work on me anymore either,” Alex declared, blonde hair falling over his forehead. “But if you really want me to spill, I will.”
Luke nodded.
“The truth is…” Luke could almost hear the dramatic drumroll. “You really didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m serious,” Alex responded when he caught sight of Luke’s incredulous expression. “You were super loyal and fun and surprisingly thoughtful most of the time.”
“Then…?”
“Why didn’t we last? For the same reason I said before. We didn’t fit. You’re high-energy, like, all the time—and that’s great for pumping us up before shows, but it’s not always what I need when I’m spinning in my own anxiety.
“And then, there’s the music. I love it—you know I do—but Reggie and I, we didn’t—don’t—live and breathe for it the way that you do. But Julie does. She can somehow reach inside that head of yours and help you untangle whatever song or lyric is knotting you up on the inside in a way we’ve never been able to.
“I mean, I knew you were sunk on her before the Orpheum—because you’re really, really obvious about it—but then you told her you didn’t want to make music without her. Do you even realize what a big deal that is?”
Luke knew. Of course, he knew.
“So, nothing about our relationship applies here because it’s a completely different dynamic. And I get that you’re worried—heck, I should be worried, for all the reasons that you said. But I’m not. Because you care about her a crazy amount—and when you’re that focused on something…. It turns out you don’t even let death stop you from finding a way.”
Wow. That was a lot. And Luke would probably need a while to dissect it all, but rather than focusing on that now, he just put his teasing smile back on. “Aww, Alex, you’re making me blush.”
“That’s literally not possible for us,” Alex pointed out, annoyed. “Because we don’t have any blood anymore. But somehow, we can still cry. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe it will someday,” Luke soothed, though he was pretty sure that every time they started to get ahold of their powers, something was going to come along to change the rules again. As long as they were good changes, like being able to touch Julie, he didn’t really mind if there was no logic to it.
“I mean it, though. Thanks,” Luke told his friend much more sincerely.
“Don’t mention it,” Alex responded. “Seriously. Ever again.”
“No promises,” Luke answered, leaning back and closing his eyes. As ghosts, they didn’t sleep, but he could zone out for a little bit and pretend that it made him more refreshed.
“Oh, and Luke?” Alex called from above.
“Yeah?” he said, cracking one eye open.
“When you do confess your eternal love for her, please, wear sleeves.”