ghosting ♪ reggie peters [jatp]

5

5. JOIN THE BAND!

Back in the studio, Luke, Reggie, and Eleanor watched Alex pace back and forth anxiously. He seemed to take the fact that they were visible on stage rather hard and had been obsessing over it ever since they got back home.

"I think he's practicing his model strut," Reggie commented.

"He'll tire himself out eventually," Eleanor muttered, her concentration mostly on the notebook in her lap. She tapped the tip of her pen to her lips as she tried to come up with the next line in the song she was writing while Alex continued to pace.

"He's so nervous, he's almost making me nervous," Luke added.

"Okay, look, you guys know I don't handle change well. All right? Death? That was a change, then we became ghosts. Another change. And... and now we can be seen whenever we play with Julie. Big freaking change!" Alex ranted.

"Yeah, but, bro, it was a good change. With Julie, we can play on stage again and be the band we never got to be. Come on, I mean, you gotta be down for that."

"Who wouldn't be? I just... You know, I wanna figure out why. Especially since Eleanor, who has been a ghost for a lot longer than us, seems to know next to nothing about the afterlife too."

"I've learned to not ask questions and just go with the flow. Why do you think I joined the band? I accept whatever life—er, the afterlife—throws at me and move on."

"Yeah, forget why," Luke agreed. "Man, I say we invite Julie to join Sunset Curve too."

"Yeah, totally. Like, think about it. With a new lead singer and our new guitarist, this band would be legendary," Reggie added.

"Hey! I'm our lead singer."

"Dude, that girl has the voice of an angel, and she can make us visible. Without her, we're just like elevator music."

"You don't gotta be so mean about it. And we're on the runway again."

Eleanor looked up to see Alex pacing yet again and running a hand through his hair.

"Okay, I'm sorry, alright? I just... I gotta go clear my head."

The rest of the band watched as he tried to pull the door handle, but his hand continued to go through it.

"Have you tried pushing it," Eleanor snickered.

"Dude, you're a ghost. Just poof out," Reggie quipped.

"Don't tell me how to ghost!"

He did eventually poof out and Reggie let out a low whistle, the tension in the room finally fading. Eleanor returned back to writing, laying across the couch where the boys had just been sitting.

"Hey, what rhymes with hesitate?"

"Marinate?" Reggie suggested, lifting up her legs and sitting underneath them. He placed them into his lap so she could remain lying down and Eleanor nearly choked on air.

"What are you writing?" Luke questioned, leaning over to read the notebook.

"Just some song I worked on with Julie's mom. I never finished it, so I thought I'd try again."

"Ooh, cool! Mind if I take a look?"

He grabbed the notebook from her grasp before she could answer and began reading out loud, ignoring Eleanor's protests to stop.

"Choke on words upon my lips,
I crave a certain kind of bliss,
nothing that I ever seemed to have

Until one of us collapses,
broken brain, missed synapses,
I fail to reach the threshold every time