Words Hurt • Reggie Peters

1

Madison Pettis as Laura González

AJ Mitchell as Payton Harrington

Julie and The Phantoms cast as themselves

Julie's aunt doesn't exist in this story

• • • • •

Carrie was handing out flyers announcing Dirty Candi's performance at the spirit rally the next day. Nick was escorting her but seemed more interested in his phone.

- I will never understand why Nick's dating Carrie, you know? - Laura commented to her boyfriend, Payton - He can have so much better.

- Like Julie? - he laughed, noticing that Nick was smiling to the girl, standing in front of her locker beside her best friend, Flynn.

- Don't be mean. You know what she's dealing with, it can't be easy to lose a mother so soon - the girl said.

- Yeah, you are right. I was just saying it because it's obvious she has a crush on Nick, and yet, doesn't speak to him. Although he still seems to sympathize with her.

 Laura thought about it and conclude that Payton was right. Nick told her how he felt useless for not being able to help Julie reconnecting with music after her loss. He wanted to, but the girl had shut everyone out except Flynn.

Comparing to Julie's life, she had it easy, not perfect but easy. The only thing she wished had been different, was meeting her sister, Rose; in fact, half-sister, from her father and his ex-wife. Unfortunately, the two parted in bad terms before Laura was born. From the little her father talked about it, she understood that Rose was pregnant and he wasn't exactly happy with her daughter, so young, entering the motherhood. On the other hand, she was angry at him for marrying a woman shortly after divorcing her mother. "So stupid", she thought to herself often.
Sometimes she wondered if Rose would have known about her when she was still alive. Unfortunately, Rose had died, and Laura found for herself a few months ago, while going through some of her father's stuff. She confronted him with it, and they had a nasty fight, but she would never forget her father's words.

- She was nobody to you, and she would've never been. That girl was trouble, and I would never let her corrupt you. Believe me that we are all better this way.

He was so cold, talking about her own daughter and Laura was terrified of him ever since. Yet, she was not determined to forget her sister. She found a box with some stuff from Rose in the attic, but unfortunately, it led to nothing. It had a few concert tickets from some successful bands and an old t-shirt with "Sunset Curve" printed. She looked it up on the internet and found a creepy history about three guys that died from eating a tainted hot-dog. She decided to keep the things from the box but changed them to a new one. While doing it, she found a piece of paper stuck in the bottom of the box. It was a piano sheet with words on it.
Ever since, Laura dedicated her free time learning how to play it. She didn't have music at school, she had always been more of a dancer. But she was committed to it and was almost playing it perfectly. Yet, Laura decided to keep it a secret from everyone, especially from her father.

• •

- I just... I don't get it. I really thought she was going to play something, but she just left the room, almost crying - Nick commented

- Yeah, I'm pretty sure Carrie's sarcasm didn't help. - Payton revolved his eyes - Pure class

The two boys were talking about their music class with Laura, but the girl had her head elsewhere.

- She... Sometimes she says some things without thinking, I tried to talk some sense into her, but she doesn't change.

- Why are you still dating her then? - Laura asked, focusing on the conversation, but before Nick had the time to answer, Carrie appeared and took him with her. 

Nick and Carrie's relationship often left Laura thinking about her own. She cared about Payton, but the truth is that she didn't see a future with him. It's like she was staying with him while waiting to meet the right person. 

• •

Laura sat by the piano in her room, after making sure nobody was home and looked at the sheet one last time before touching the instrument. She was confident this time was going to be the perfect one. She started playing, and her fingers just slid through the piano, creating a beautiful melody, joined by her voice, singing the strong lyrics written by Rose. The song was about her relationship with her father. But little did Laura knew that he was listening on the other side of the door. When she finished to play it, she felt a strange feeling, like that was this force coming from the music she had just sing. She didn't understand what it was and decided to ignore it, but she wasn't so sure it was nothing when she woke up after a strange dream. She was in a garage and, suddenly, three guys were playing music; she couldn't quite identify their faces until a familiar one appeared - Julie. She was yelling with the boys about the noise, and that's when Laura woke up. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but a more conspirational side of her thought it could be related to the strange feeling from the prior day.

• • • • •

NA: We have some background in this first chapter. Laura is Rose's half sister and Julie's "aunt" but the two girls were born in the same year. Rose was a mother at a young age and that happened at the same time her father was marrying Laura's mother, and having the girl short later. 

So, I binge-watched this show in one night and I absolutely loved it. When I decided to write about it I did some research and found out that Madison and Charlie are 6 years apart and that was like my first impression when Julie met the ghosts; i thought they were so much older then her so it was really awkward to me to see Luke falling for Julie but when they started to perform together I felt like that disappeared, idk if I'm the only one who had that idea.