To him, rhythm is the pattern of music. To her, rhythm is movement on a page.
JATP season 1
[reggie x female oc]
[alex x male oc]
Disclaimer: I do not own Julie and the Phantoms and the associated characters. I own all original characters and orig...
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"Ditto."
HE deserves to know. That is all Jess can think as she sits on Justin's bed alone. The boys finally made a plan to tell Julie while they were at the beach, leaving Jess to tell Justin. Jess had a feeling the plans would go sideways, but there isn't much else left.
As Justin walks in, Jess looks up with a tight-lipped smile. "Oh," he says. "Hey. Didn't expect you here."
"I'm ok," she replies with a sigh. "It's mostly gone now. I'm back, I guess."
"Does that mean I can hug you now?"
She practically jumps into his arms, gripping him tightly as he buries his face in her neck. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "It just hurts to be touched sometimes."
"I know." He pulls back and smiles. "I'm just glad you're back and ok. Did the guys find you?"
"Yeah." They both sink onto the bed. "It was...nice. Better than I thought it would be. They found out about Zoe, though, huh? Alex was a little freaked out by it."
"Of course, he was," Justin chuckles. "She showed us some stuff you had hidden in here." He motions to the beanbag. "Told us some stuff about your parents and your art."
"She was always better at talking than I was."
"You're not mad?"
"You know me." Jess nudges his arm with a grin. "I don't care if they know, I just...I can never say it right. I'm glad they know. Even if..." The grin falls as she glances at him. "Look, there's something you need to know."
"Does this have to do with the boys?" Justin asks. He crosses his legs as he turns to face her. "They mentioned that you were supposed to tell me something."
Jess nods as she takes a deep breath. "The night of the dance, we went to this ghost club in downtown Hollywood," she explains slowly. Already, she can tell he has an inkling of where this is going. "The place didn't feel right to me, and for reasons I'd rather not explain now, I left." As Jess looks down, she wishes she didn't know that Justin's memory box is just under the mattress. "The guys stayed, obviously. Something happened."
He begins to shake his head. "No, Jess. Please don't tell me—"
"They got voodoo stamps, Justin."
He jumps to his feet, taking a step away from her. "No. We said no stamps. We don't even know what they do!"
"We do now, and it's not good." Something cracks in her chest at the sheer amount of panic in his face. "It causes these jolts. I only found out last night when it happened in front of me. It saps the energy out until there's nothing left."
