Impermanent Perfection - jatp/luke

1.19

after that, julie had moved to their room to try and figure out what she was going to wear tonight, while jade was sitting on the couch in the studio, anxiously staring at her phone.

luke appeared beside her as alex and reggie landed on the two chairs. luke peered at her phone screen, where jade had pulled up her moms contact and was trying to decide whether or not she would tell her about their show.

luke watched for a moment as jade's fingers hovered above the screen nervously. he looked back and forth between the screen and her eyes, trying to assess how stressed the girl actually was.

"i may not be great with new technology, but i'm pretty sure you need to actually touch the screen for anything to happen." he jokes in an attempt to help calm her nerves. she cracked a small smile and turned to him, seeing the playful grin on his face.

"i know that." she says with a small laugh. "i just don't know if i should." she adds quietly, her voice wavering slightly.

she couldn't be sure, but from the way alex and reggie were looking at her, she was pretty sure luke had told them about her going to see her mom. she didn't mind, she trusted all these boys in a way she hadn't trusted anyone before.

though she still hadn't told julie or flynn, or even ray. she didn't know how she would even go about telling them. it was somewhat of a complicated situation to talk about.

"you should." luke says, nodding at her seriously. she took a deep breath, her eyes not leaving his before slowly nodding with him.

"okay." she says softly, turning to her phone.

it took her a few minutes, and the help of three ghosts who all know about dealing with parental issues, to craft the perfect message. it ended up being only about a sentence long, to inform her mom of their show tonight.

she wasn't sure how her mom would respond. she knew about the band now, but did she actually want to see them or was she just saying that? jade tried not to think too much about it, tonight would be stressful enough without worrying about her drama with her parents.

after a few moments of silence that followed her hitting send on the message, she cleared her throat awkwardly. it seemed none of the boys really knew what to say.

"oh!" she sat up slightly, a thought popping into her brain. "you guys wanna see something cool?" she asks, reaching in to her pocket as their smiles grew and the boys all nodded.

she pulled out the polaroid picture she had been keeping with her at all times now, and handed it to luke.

"what am i looking at?" he questions, his eyes still focused more on jade than the photo.

"just look." she says excitedly, pointing to the picture.

it took luke a moment to notice, just like it took jade, but he was eventually able to see the faint outline of himself in the picture. his eyes widened and he sat up with a grin.

"i thought you said it didn't work?" he questions, making the other two boys watch them in confusion.

"what didn't work?" alex asks, and instead of responding with words, luke waved the two boys over.

they joined beside him, looking at the picture, and all the boys became speechless. they were staring at the photo wide-eyed in disbelief.

"wait, is that luke?" reggie clarifies and jade nodded.

"wild, right?" she smiled, looking down at the picture in lukes hand again.

luke was no longer looking at the picture like the other three, now he was staring at jade. his smile grew seeing how happy she was looking at the picture. she now had a piece of him to keep after he crossed over, and he loved that.