After school, me and Julie just wanted to get home and forget about the whole day. As we walked home, I found myself apologizing profusely to Julie, but she didn't blame me at all, she just kept saying it wasn't my fault. She changed the subject and told me the band name that Flynn came up with, 'Julie, y/n, and the phantoms'.
"No no, it should be Julie and the phantoms. You're the star. Besides, being a phantom would be pretty cool!" I objected.
"Are you sure? I want you alongside me, and people to know your name as well as mine. I don't want to overshadow you."
"Overshadow? Never, you are the star, believe me." I reassured her, and born was our band name, 'Julie and the phantoms'.
We made our way out the the studio, not expecting to see the guys out there. Everything was still really awkward between them and Julie. She hadn't talked to them since last night.
'We're sorry, so sorry. We're super duper crazy stupid sorry!'
We walked up to the garage doors to be greeted by a tune from the band. Julie wasn't impressed but I couldn't help but smile. I knew she was upset, but she couldn't blame everything on them. I was also in the wrong.
"In case you missed it, we're really sorry" Reggie chuckled.
"Yeah.. I... I think we got that part." Julie stuttered.
"We've been here for, like, three hours."
"Yup" Reggie and Alex high-fived.
"We almost sang to your little brother." Luke raised from his knees.
"He comes in here a lot... mainly to use the bathroom."
"Yeah. It's not our favourite part of the day."
"But, Julie, it wasn't okay that we flaked on the dance last night. And y/n, we shouldn't have taken you with us, that's on us. We know we let you guys down." Luke stepped closer to us.
Alex added on, "Yeah, and none of us wanted to let you down, especially y/n. You're the best thing that's happened to us since we became ghosts."
"So.. in the hopes that you'll re-join our band, we booked a new gig." Luke held out a poster in front of us.
"A mega important life changing gig!" Reggie leant on Alex's shoulder. The poster read: "Eats & Beats. New Music Night, Live Music".
"Okay, okay, check it out. Tons of managers go here to listen to new bands. All we gotta do is blow them all away, and we're living the dream!"
"So.. this means a lot to you guys, huh? Kind of how playing in front of our entire school meant a lot to us."
"Sounds like sarcasm..." Reggie started as I put my head in my hands, stifling my laugh. "I'm starting to think our plan isn't working." He whispered to Alex, but Alex just ignored him.
"Look, we know we messed up"
"But we need you guys in the band." Luke finished Alex's sentence.
"Of course you do, because without us, no one can see you guys play. You know, I thought the music that we were writing was special, but you're too obsessed with your past to even care."
"Julie!" I couldn't believe what she was saying.
"I do care. Our band has a real chance at greatness and I'm not gonna let that get away from us again."
"Uh-huh. Right. So then why did you bail on us to get back at Trevor, and why did you put my sister in danger like that? I'll tell you why. Cause there's only one thing you care about, and that's yourself." Julie turned her back on Luke and walked away, not looking back.
Luke started to walk after her and turned back to look at the guys "Dude, she didn't mean it." Alex said, he didn't listen and he poofed out.
"Where's he going?" Reggie asked.
"Where do you think? Remember what today is?" Alex replied, "What's today?" I asked, not getting an answer as they walked into the house, I followed closely behind. We walked up to Julie, who was distracting herself with homework. I went and sat next to her.
"Hey.. uh, you got a second?" Alex asked. Julie sighed and rested her head on my shoulder.
"Oh my gosh! She can't see us anymore!" Reggie sounded panicked as Alex looked at him, unimpressed. "Reg..." I said. "Oh. Right. Yep."
Alex came and sat on the arm of the couch. "Julie, please." She pulled herself up and looked at Alex. "I already told you that I'm done with the band."
"Yeah, we know, all right? But before you decide that forever, we just... We wanted you to know that Luke isn't as selfish as you think."
"Yeah, you've got him all wrong." Julie scoffed and just ignored them.
"You remember that song 'Emily'? Can we at lest show you who that's about?"
The boys gave Julie the address to go to and Reggie held out his hand for me. "I'll see you there, okay? Be careful." I hugged Julie before grabbing Reggie's hand and being teleported to the address. We waited 15 minutes before Julie came. I ran over to her and threw my arm around her shoulders, we walked up to the guys and we snuck around to the back of the bungalow sat before us. We hid behind the plants in the garden and had a clear view through the sliding doors of the kitchen.
We saw a man and a woman bustling around the kitchen, Luke sitting on the counter watching them go about their business.
"So.. Emily is his mom?" I asked.
"Yeah, yeah Luke comes here a lot" Alex replied.
"He thinks we don't know but... we've been following him. All he does is just hang out like this and watch them. They never really do anything though." I put my hand on Reggie's as I heard his voice break and smiled at him, as if to tell him that it was okay.
"They're having cake." Julie pointed out, "That's something."
"It's a.. It's a birthday cake. For Luke."
"I never knew Luke was hurting this much." Julie added.
"Yeah. It's even worse when he died, he... left on bad terms. You know, his parents didn't want their 17-year-old in a rock band, so... he just left. He never got the chance to make up with them." Alex told us.
As he said this, Luke made his way off of the counter and sat in the spare seat at his parents' table. His dad lit the singular candle on the cake and Luke blew it out. His parents looking around as they thought the wind caused it to extinguish.
"That's why Luke was so angry, if Trevor had given Luke credit for writing all the songs then..." Reggie started as I rested my head on his shoulder, tears forming in our eyes, "...his parents would've known his dream was worth chasing."
"They would have been.. so proud." I told them. His parents joined hands as you could see their heart breaking through the action. At this point, all of us had a tear streaming down our face. The whole family leant forward and blew out the light.
"We know how bad it hurts whenever someone that should've had your back... completely lets you down. We never meant to make you feel that way." Alex came to his feet.
"Y/n, Julie, we love our band, and Luke does too. Please give us another chance."
The cake was sliced and Luke's parents mourned the loss of their son.
-----------------LATER-----------------
Me, Julie and the guys started to rehearse as we waited for Luke to return.
'Marching on proud
Turn it up loud
'Cause now we know what we're worth'
All of a sudden, Luke poofed into the studio. "Whoa, Julie, y/n."
"Grab your guitar, we got work to do." Julie told him, he took a minute and looked confused, consulting the guys to be sure. Then he grabbed his guitar, "What made you guys come back?"
"We realized how important music is to all of us. And we've lost so much already, we can't lose this too."
"Thanks. All right boss, where we at?" He chuckled.
"Oh and by the way.." Julie started and looked at me, "Happy birthday" We said together.
"Let's go from the pre-chorus." She said and we rehearsed for the rest of the night. I was glad we were learning about the boys pasts. It made me feel closer to them.
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Hey hey! Once again, a bit of a late chapter but I was kind of trying to postpone writing the beginning of the sad chapters but I'm going to keep this and I think I'm going to write over 'Unsaid Emily' and put my little spin on it and not make myself sad when writing it :)). Also want to say, thank you so much for almost 2k reads, that's amazing. I'm so glad you guys are liking my chapters, if you have any ideas or requests or anything, feel free to comment them and let me know and I might incorporate some of your guys' ideas :)
-Zoe