ii. Ghost

There are only a couple minutes left before the doors to the Orpheum will open, allowing anyone in line to come into the theater to see the band perform. It has been about an hour since Angelina and the three boys from Sunset Curve left the Orpheum to get street dogs. Rose walks around the room, making sure that everything is set up and ready to go for tonight's show. As she walks by the table that she and Angelina were standing at, she notices the journal that the blonde girl was holding onto. The book is sitting on the couch that the two girls were standing in front of only an hour ago.

Rose picks up the journal and opens it. Scanning through a couple of the pages, she comes to the realization that this isn't any kind of journal, it's Angelina's song journal. Looking at some of the songs that the blonde wrote, she notices how good of a songwriter Angelina is. Knowing that there isn't enough time to find the blonde and give the girl her song journal back before the show, Rose puts the journal with her things before she continues making sure everything is perfect so the crowd can be let in for the show.

In the room that is reserved for the members of Sunset Curve, Bobby is pacing back and forth as he often glances at the clock hanging on the wall. Looking at the clock for the hundredth time in ten minutes, the rhythm guitarist lets out a heavy sigh before muttering, "Where the hell are they? They should be back by now. The show is going to start in twenty minutes." Bobby shakes his head before he resumes his pacing.

Not even fifteen minutes later, the police inform Bobby, the staff of the Orpheum, and the crowd waiting to see the band of the tragic passing of Alex, Reggie, Luke, and Angelina. The show had to be cancelled, resulting in whoever bought tickets to see the band getting their money refunded before being sent home. In all the shock and confusion that has happened that night, Rose doesn't even realize that she still has Angelina's song journal until she is back in the comfort of her apartment.

•••

A week later when the shock finally settles in, she decides to play a song from Angelina's song journal. Rose grabs the journal and sits down at her piano. She opens up to a random page and starts to play the song on the piano before singing the words that are written down on the page.

Rose

I keep going to the river to pray

'Cause I need something that can wash out the pain

And at most

I'm sleeping all these demons away

But your ghost, the ghost of you

It keeps me awa-

Rose suddenly stops singing when she hears a loud scream come from out of nowhere, causing the latina to look around the room in confusion. Before she knows it, Angelina appears out of thin air and lands on the piano. A startled Rose jumps up from the bench of the piano and lets out a loud, "Oh my God!" She then starts pacing back and forth, mumbling about how she's gone crazy and that this can't be real.

Angelina groans out in pain and rolls over right off of the piano. She lets out a yelp before hitting the ground, causing her to groan out again. Once she hears the murmurs coming from Rose, she jumps up off of the ground. "Where am I? What happened? Where are the boys?" Angelina quickly asks as she looks around at her surroundings. The last thing that she remembers is sitting with the boys in the alleyway eating street dogs and talking about how their lives would change after the three boys would play at the Orpheum.

At the sound of Angelina's voice, Rose stops pacing abruptly. She whips her head over to Angelina and says, "What do you mean what happened? You died!" Angelina scoffs before letting out a laugh, thinking that Rose is joking. "I'm serious! You really died! You've been dead for a week!" she says insistently.

Angelina stops laughing and lets Rose's words sink in. When it finally hits her that she did indeed die, she lets out a loud sob as she sits down on the bench of the piano. Rose moves toward her and tries to grab a hold of her hand, but realizes they can't touch when her hand goes right through Angelina's. Angelina starts to cry even louder at the fact that Rose can't touch her. "I can't believe I'm actually dead," she is quiet for a minute before she sobs again, "I don't belong here anymore."

"What happened after you died?" Rose asks as she kneels in front of Angelina.

Angelina sniffles before replying, "I was all alone in this dark room for what felt like a minute or two. And the next thing I know, I'm falling and I land on your piano."

"You were alone?" Rose asks the ghost.

Angelina nods her head and says, "Yeah, I was there by myself. I didn't know where the boys were and I thought I was trapped in some kind of nightmare."

Rose reassures the girl, "Don't worry Angelina, you are going to get through this."

"How?" the blonde ghost asks dejectedly as she looks down at her hands.

"I'm going to help you through this," Rose sternly tells the girl.

Angelina looks back up at Rose as she asks, "Really? You're not going to make me leave?"

"Of course not. We are going to be in this together. I promise," Rose says as she stands back up from the ground.

•••

For the first few years after Angelina's death, the girl would put on a front for Rose. during the day she would pretend that she is fine but once the latina goes to sleep at night, that's when Angelina lets all of her feelings out. She spends most of her nights crying over the loss of the three people she has spent her whole life with. She doesn't know what happened to Reggie, Alex, and Luke after they died with her. How come she ended up in a dark room all by herself without the three boys? Where did they go? Are they trapped in their own dark room? Are they out among the living, not caring enough to look for her? Or did they look for her, but only gave up when they couldn't find her? Were they able to cross over to the other side after they died and aren't stuck as ghosts like the blonde girl is?

She also spends her nights crying over the fact that she is dead and will never get the chance to have a normal life, she is to be a ghost for all eternity. She'll never get the chance to get married, have kids, and grow old. She won't have the chance to pursue a solo music career, like she thought she would have done eventually. She won't get to see the boys become the legends that she knew they were going to become after they were supposed to play at the Orpheum.

When she has an exceptionally hard day holding her emotions in, she usually disappears for the day and visits Luke's parents. Sometimes she would visit Reggie's parents, but she hasn't seen them in a while since they got a divorce and moved far away from each other, selling Reggie's childhood home in the process. She very rarely visits her parents because of the way they treated her brother after he told them that he's gay. Her parents started to avoid their son after that and when Angelina stood by her twin, they inevitably started avoiding her as well.

Rose catches her one night, crying in the corner of the latina's living room. The woman turns on the light, startling Angelina. The blonde quickly wipes away her tears as Rose asks, "What are you doing? Why are you in the corner crying?" Rose sits down on the couch as she looks expectantly at the blonde ghost.

Angelina sighs as she stands up, walking over to where Rose sits as she explains, "I was thinking about the boys. I miss them so much." Angelina sits down next to Rose, who gives the blonde a look, knowing that the ghost isn't telling her everything. Angelina lets out a sigh before continuing, "I was also thinking about the life I could have had if I didn't die that night with the boys. What life the four of us would have had together if we didn't die after eating those stupid street dogs."

Rose gives Angelina a sympathetic smile before asking, "How long have you been crying during the middle of the night?"

Angelina looks away from the latina as she sheepishly admits, "Almost every night since I died."

Rose lets out a sigh before telling the blonde, "Okay, well no more. After tonight, we aren't going to dwell on the past." Angelina looks over at the curly haired girl with furrowed brows, causing the latina to add on, "We are going to get rid of these sad thoughts and move on. It isn't healthy to dwell on what could have been. We need to be able to move forward with our lives."

Angelina scrunches up her face as she retorts "I don't have a life. I'm dead."

Rose gives the blonde an annoyed look before replying, "You need to move forward in your new life as a ghost."

Angelina sighs as she says, "I can't just forget about Luke, Reggie, and Alex though."

Rose shakes her head as she tells the ghost, "You don't need to forget about them, you just need to stop crying over them. They wouldn't want you spending all of eternity moping over them. They would want you to use this new ghost life to your advantage."

Angelina nods her head as she stands up and exclaims, "You're right. After tonight, I will make the best of my eternal life as a ghost. I will no longer cry in the dark corner of your living room. I will make the most of my time among the living."

Rose smiles at the girl, "There you go. Now sit down and tell me the best memories that you have with those boys." Angelina smiles at her friend and sits back down on the couch. Angelina spends the rest of the night telling Rose funny memories that she has of the boys of Sunset Curve. They eventually started telling one another their deepest secrets, promising to take them to the grave.

•••

Once after a long day, Rose enters her apartment with a dreamy smile on her face. Angelina, who is laying down on the piano sits up at the sight of her living friend, giving the girl a knowing smile as she speaks up, startling the latina, "I know that face. You met a guy. Tell me everything. Spare no details. And... go." Angelina points at Rose, waiting for the latina to tell her everything about this guy.

Rose furrows her brows and asks, "How do you know I met a guy?"

"I can tell by the look on your face," Angelina responds.

Rose nods her head, her brows still furrowed as she asks the blonde another question, "Why do you want to hear every single boring detail about how I met a guy?"

Angelina sighs and says in an obvious tone, "I'm dead. Which means I'm forced to live vicariously through you. Now stop changing the subject and tell me everything about this guy."

Rose rolls her eyes at the blonde before she starts to gush about the guy she met, smiling at the thought of him, "His name is Ray." She makes her way over to the ghost as she continues, "He's a photographer." She spends the next couple of minutes going into full detail on how she met the man and how he asked her out on a date. Angelina smiles at Rose, happy that someone is able to put that gigantic smile on the curly haired girl's face.

About a month later, Angelina is sitting on the piano again with her feet hanging off the side, swinging back and forth. Rose is in her room getting ready for her date with Ray. They have been going on numerous dates in the past month and tonight is the first time that Angelina gets to "meet" the man that seems to have captured Rose's heart. The curly haired girl rushes out of her room when a knock is heard at the door. She opens it and greets the man, "Hey, come on in." Ray moves into the apartment and Rose closes the door as she continues, "Make yourself at home. I'm almost ready. Just give me a couple minutes." Ray nods his head as Rose rushes back into her room.

Ray looks around the apartment, taking everything in as Angelina narrows her eyes at the man. She hops off the piano before walking over to him, trying to intimidate him even though she knows he can't see her, "So, you must be Ray. I've heard a lot about you." She slowly walks around Ray, sizing him up as he continues to look around the apartment, completely unaware of the blonde ghost. "Rose seems to really like you. She never stops gushing about how great you are." She pauses for a second before adding, "If you break her heart, then I will haunt you and make your life a living nightmare until the day you die."

Rose walks out of her room and quickly gives the blonde a pointed look. She smiles at Ray as she asks him, "Ready to go?"

Ray looks over at the smiling girl and a grin of his own spreads across his face as he replies, "Yeah."

Rose walks up to him as Angelina leans over to Ray, whispering to him, "Make sure you have her home by eleven." Rose gives Angelina a sharp glare as she takes Ray's hand and heads to the door. As Rose opens the door and the couple leaves the apartment, Angelina calls out, waving at them, "Have fun on your date!" When the door to the apartment closes, Angelina nods her head and lets out a happy sigh, proud of herself.

•••

When Ray finally proposes to Rose, the couple decides that it is time for them to buy a house and move in together. Which is why Angelina and Rose are sitting at the table in the latter's apartment, looking through the newspaper for ads on houses that are for sale. A house for sale catches Angelina's eye, causing the blonde to let out a surprised gasp. Rose looks up at the ghost with furrowed brows, causing the ghost to explain why she is suddenly surprised, "My parent's house is for sale."

"Which one?" Rose asks the ghost as her eyes skim over all the houses in the paper.

Angelina points to the photo of her childhood home as she replies, "This one."

Rose looks at the photo and the details underneath it as she says, "It's a cute house."

Angelina lets out another gasp, not out of shock but instead at the great idea that just popped into her head before she enthusiastically exclaims, causing Rose to look up at the blonde, "You and Ray should totally buy it."

Rose opens her mouth and shakes her head, "Oh, Angie. I don't know."

Angelina sighs as the latina looks over at her ghost friend, who tries to reason with her, "Think about it, Rosie. You can turn the garage into a studio, where you will eventually teach your kids how to play music." Rose opens her mouth to object and Angelina points at her, stopping the latina before she could say anything, "When you do have kids, which you will, they will be as talented as you are." Rose closes her mouth and gives the blonde a smile. "I could also stay out in the studio. That way I'm not lurking around your apartment all the time. I do not want to be lurking around when you finally move in with your soon to be husband." Rose rolls her eyes and shakes her head, a smile still present on her face.

Before Angelina is able to continue persuading Rose into buying the house, the door to the latina's apartment opens. Victoria, Rose's sister walks into the apartment as she exclaims, "Oh, can you believe it? Mi hermana is getting married."

Rose puts her hand over her face as Angelina asks her curly haired friend, "I thought you locked the door." Don't get Angelina wrong, she likes Rose's sister but sometimes the woman can be a bit bothersome and likes to intrude when she isn't welcome.

Rose looks at Angelina through her fingers as she mutters under her breath, "I did."

Angelina shakes her head as she admits to the curly haired woman, "I love your sister, I do. But she does know that breaking and entering is a crime, right?"

She lets out a small laugh as she removes her hand from her face and turns in her seat to look at Victoria. "Victoria, what are you doing here? I only gave you a key for emergencies."

"That was your first mistake," Angelina retorts under her breath. Hearing the ghost, a smirk forms on Rose's face as she shakes her head and playfully rolls her eyes at the blonde. When both women aren't looking, Angelina picks up a pen from the table and quickly circles the ad of her childhood home.

Victoria smiles at her sister as she responds, shutting the door to the apartment, "It is an emergency. As your dama de honor, I have taken it upon myself to help you with preparations for the wedding."

Angelina leans forward and tells Rose, mocking the other latina, "I think everyone can agree when I say that if I was still alive, I would be your dama de honor." A smile crosses Rose's face, agreeing with the blonde.

Victoria walks over to where Rose is sitting as she continues, "I also thought it would be beneficial to help you pick out a house in a good neighborhood. I don't want my future sobrinos to live next door to a crack house." Angelina stifles a laugh as Rose gives her sister an annoyed look. Victoria stands behind Rose's chair and looks at the ads in the newspaper. When she sees the ad that Angelina circled, she points to it and says, "Oh that is a nice house. It's in a nice neighborhood too. I guess you don't need my help after all."

Rose turns her head to look at the ad that Victoria is talking about. When she sees it, she gives a small glare to Angelina, who just looks back at Rose with an innocent look on her face. Rose glances over at her sister as she replies, "That is just one option. I'm not entirely sold on it yet."

Victoria gives her sister a look as she says, "It is a very cute house and the price is in the price range that you and Ray were talking about. It doesn't get any better than that."

Rose sighs as she looks over at Angelina, who speaks up, "As much as this might come to a shock, I agree with Victoria. And my brother's band used to practice in that garage. Living there will be like they are still with me."

The curly haired latina looks down at the ad one more time before she sighs, "I'll talk to Ray, see what he thinks about this house. But I definitely think that this is the place where I can see myself living for the rest of my life."

Victoria smiles at Rose and Angelina lets out a cheer, "Yes! We will have great times in that house together. I just know it." Rose smiles at the blonde, who exclaims, "Ah! I'm coming home!"

About a month later, Rose and Ray are moving into Angelina's childhood home and the ghost is moving into the garage, which Rose will eventually turn into a studio. Rose and Angelina always have jam sessions in the studio and hopefully Rose's children can join in, even though they won't be able to see the blonde. Angelina never stops writing songs in her journal, even though she has gotten writer's block most of the time and is always looking for new inspiration.

•••

When Rose has her first child, Julie, it comes as a surprise to both Rose and Angelina when little Julie can see the blonde ghost as well. Whenever the little girl talks animatedly about Angelina to someone, Rose always plays it off and says that 'Angie' is her daughter's imaginary friend. The blonde ghost doesn't mind, however, because she loves spending time with Julie, no matter what. Little Julie loves hanging and rocking out with her imaginary friend and her mother.

When Rose puts Julie to bed, she sings the little girl a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her. Angelina asks Rose to teach her the song as well so they can both sing to Julie before the little girl goes to sleep.

Julie is in her butterfly covered bed, looking between her mother and her imaginary friend, who sings her the lullaby.

Rose

A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella

Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea

Angelina

A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella

Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea

Both

Fuentecita que corre clara y sonora

Ruiseñor que en la selva, cantando y llora

Calla mientras la cuna, se balancea

A la nanita nana, nanita ella

Julie nods off, starting to enter dream land.

A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella

Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea

Fuentecita que corre clara y sonora

Ruiseñor que en la selva, cantando y llora

Julie finally falls asleep while both Rose and Angelina finish the song.

Calla mientras la cuna, se balancea

A la nanita nana, nanita ella

•••

Once when Julie is only five, Rose tries to keep the little girl out of the studio because Angelina has finally got an idea for a song she has been stuck on called Power of Two. The blonde ghost has been trying to write the song for the past couple of weeks but nothing has been able to bring her out of her writer's block. The latina wants to give Angelina some alone time so that she can write the song before her writer's block inevitably comes back. Angelina's song writing process is interrupted when Julie runs into the studio shouting, "Angie, Angie!"

Angelina appears right next to the little girl and says, "Yes, Julsie."

Before Julie could reply, Rose walks into the room while apologizing to her ghost friend, "Sorry, Angie. I couldn't stop her."

"No worries, I was just about to take a break anyways," Angelina tells her curly haired friend. Rose knows that Angelina and the blonde wasn't actually going to take a break from writing the song. Whenever it comes to Julie, Angelina drops what she is doing and caters to the little girl. The blonde ghost looks up at Rose to see her knowing look before defending herself, "Rosie, I'm not lying this time. I was actually gonna take a break." She wasn't actually going to take a break, but maybe Julie's presence can spark some more ideas for the song.

"Mmhm," Rose hums, unconvinced by Angelina's words. She walks over to her daughter before saying, "Since Angie is apparently on a break, why don't you ask her what you've been dying to ask."

Julie gives her mom a confused look before she suddenly remembers what she had been pestering Rose about for the past couple hours. She looks back to Angelina and innocently says to her imaginary friend, "Oh, yeah. Is da song finitched yet?"

Angelina crouches down to be the same height as Julie and replies, "Almost. I have to work on a couple more things with it. As soon as I finish the song, I promise that we can rock out to it." Julie smiles and nods vigorously to the blonde.

•••

One night, Julie has trouble doing her fourth grade math homework, so she asks her imaginary friend for help, "Angie, can you help me with my math homework?" The little girl often does her homework in the studio because she likes spending time with Angelina.

"Sure thing, Julsie," Angelina replies as she sits down next to Julie on the couch. She looks at the curly haired fourth grader, asking her, "What are we learning about tonight?"

Julie looks at her textbook, replying to the blonde, "Order of Operations."

Angelina looks at the problems in Julie's textbook before saying, "Okay, what is so hard about them?"

Julie sighs as she points to her notebook, "I'm stuck on problem ten, which is -1 x [(3 - 4 x 7) ÷ 5] - 2 x 24 ÷ 6. I keep getting -10.6 but the back of the book says that the answer is -3. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong."

"Don't worry. It's very easy," Angelina assures the girl, causing Julie to look over at the ghost with furrowed brows. "You use PEMDAS to solve these types of problems."

Julie gives Angelina a look of realization as she says, "Oh, right. My teacher taught us about PEMDAS, but I can never seem to remember it."

Angelina smiles at the girl before saying, "Well teachers usually use a saying to get kids to remember it. How about we make up our own saying, so it's easier for you to remember?"

Julie nods her head at the blonde before letting out, "Okay."

The two sit in silence for a minute before Angelina speaks up, "I got one. This one is for you. Please Enjoy My Dad's Awful Singing." Julie looks over at the blonde with her eyebrows furrowed, causing the blonde to elaborate, "Don't get me wrong, your dad has a nice singing voice, but he usually mumbles through the words. He's always like..." Angelina then starts to imitate Ray singing to Get Lost, a song that is written by Trevor Wilson. Julie lets out a laugh at Angelina's impression of her father.

When the fourth grader's laughs die down, she says, "I got one too. Pancake Explosion Many Deaths Are Expected."

Angelina lets out a laugh before asking the girl, "What made you come up with that one?"

Julie shrugs her shoulder before replying, "Carlos was rambling about exploding pancakes at dinner." Angelina lets out another laugh, causing Julie to laugh as well.

Little did anyone know, tragedy will fall upon them again, but light always finds its way through the darkness. They didn't know that it would come in the form of three boys who Angelina never thought she would see again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey guys!! It's been a very stressful week, due to finals. My last final is tomorrow and I can't wait to be finished with it so I can be rid of all this stress. I hope you guys are having a great week and enjoy your Thanksgiving on Thursday!!

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, which shows some moments from the twenty-five years Angelina was without the boys. There is also a small reference to Teen Wolf in this chapter. The boys officially come back next chapter.