Alex and Luke; A 'Julie and the Phantoms' AU

Part 13: Something to Think About

Reggie looks at Bobby while he stares into the garage, "You mean like how you're doing to me right now?" he says in a sarcastic tone.

Bobby swivels his head to look at Reggie, realizing his point. "Wha- no- I..." he says, followed by a sigh, "You know what I mean."

Reggie scoffs at the boy, "Would you just give it a rest? There is no way that anything is go-" Reggie cuts himself off before he can finish and looks at Luke. He furrows his brows as he remembers what Luke confessed to him in the bathroom. He begins to think that Bobby's theory may not be as improbable as he originally thought.

Bobby notices the shift in Reggie's face, his curiosity growing as he says, "What? What is it?"

Reggie stalls for a moment, realizing he can't say anything and betray a friend like that. He clears his throat, looks at the ground, and says, "Nothing. It's, uh... nothing. Nevermind." Bobby refuses to take this, saying "What do you mean 'nothing'? Bro, you were about to say there's no way anything is going on but then you stopped cold like you just saw a ghost, okay, what's up?"

Reggie starts to get annoyed by Bobby's interrogation. "It's nothing! Okay, forget it!" Reggie exclaims, his voice louder than he intended. Bobby jumps back a bit, startled by the volume. Luke and Alex also stop what they're doing and turn towards the noise.

"Dude, okay, I get it. Jeez, I'll quit asking." Bobby says, not wanting the situation to escalate.

At this point Reggie is upset and deep in defense mode of his friend, "You should've quit it a while ago, dude! Just, drop it! Completely, okay!?" Reggie is yelling in Bobby's face, backing him up against the open back door of the van. Luke and Alex decide they should probably step in.

Alex jumps over a bag on the ground and rushes over to his friends. "Hey, HEY, what's going on over here?" Alex questions, putting a hand against Reggie's chest to back him up. Luke follows behind a little, nervous that he has something to do with the argument being started.

Bobby, "I don't know, bro. We were talking and then all of the sudden he got wicked defensive and upset for no reason." Reggie glares at Bobby again, repeating "No reason?" and goes to take a step towards him again. Alex takes a step in front of Reggie and puts his hands back on the boy's chest, gently pushing him back again.

"OH kay! Bobby, in the van. Reggie, in the garage." Alex commands. Luke walks over to Reggie and puts his arm around his shoulders, walking him back into the garage.

Bobby just looks at Alex and goes, "Whatever, man. I'm ready to go when you guys are." He gets in the driver's seat of the van, and Alex shuts the door behind him before walking back into the garage to talk with Reggie and Luke.

"Okay, what was that?" Alex asks, looking at Reggie who is sitting on the drum stool looking off to the side. Silence. Alex speaks up again, "Listen, we've gotta play to a whole new audience in just a few hours and we all know that, one: Bobby doesn't exactly fight clean and two: confrontation has never really been your thing. So, please, enlighten me on what possibly could have made you start whatever that was."

Reggie turns his head towards the guys. He holds a stare with Luke for a moment, then looks at Alex. "Look, I can't-" He begins, but Luke jumps in.

"He knows." Luke says. Reggie looks back at Luke and questions, "What?" before saying anything further. Luke sighs and folds his arms across his chest. "Alex knows. I kind of... went to him when I first started, uh... questioning... things about myself because, i mean, y'know... he's got experience." Luke lets out. Reggie averts his eyes to Alex, and Alex nods his head in confirmation.

"So, c'mon, what was that about?" Luke asks. "And, quickly before Bobby gets suspicious and before we're late." Alex adds.

Reggie stands up, rubs his hands over his face, then explains everything. "Basically, for the past... I don't know, a couple weeks? Maybe? Bobby's had this crazy theory that you two are secretly together and in some relationship." Luke and Alex swallow hard at this, but maintain their collected outer appearances. Reggie continues, "He brings it up to me every now and then saying he has," he brings up his hands to make air quotes, "'more proof' and I usually just let him talk until he stops or tell him it's stupid or whatever. Just now he started whispering to me about the two of you whispering to each other and I started to say that he should just stop because there's obviously no way that anything is going on between you guys but I stopped in the middle of my sentence because I remembered what Luke told me and it kind of made me think maybe there isn't no way that something's going on and Bobby started asking why I stopped talking and I just... I knew I couldn't say anything so I just got defensive and wanted him to stop talking about it all together."