Object Impermanence for Beginners

Being in a band that's three fourth ghosts can be pretty fun, Julie has to admit.

Sure, it's taken all of them a while to get used to everything that comes along with it, especially her, but Julie thinks that they're doing a pretty great job by now.

And yeah, there's the whole object impermanence thing they still struggle with, but for the most part, once you get used to having them around (constantly, as Julie sometimes mourns, but always in good humor), it becomes surprisingly easy to forget that her bandmates are not, in fact, human.

Julie feels like, as the token human member of the band, she's the only one slipping up on that account. Considering Flynn has been the first and so far only person to point it out to her, it's safe to assume that the boys haven't even noticed. For the sake of all of their sanity, she promises Flynn to work on it, but, even though Julie has always preferred music to maths, she still knows that the odds of her succeeding converge to zero.

In Julie's defense: When she's lounging on the couch in the music room, essentially mirroring Reggie's position next to her, both of them listening to what Luke and Alex are working on while Reggie browses through a magazine and Julie scrolls through her Instagram feed, it's easy to forget that they're not the same. It's very easy to get fooled by the mundanity they fell into.

Once Julie registers what just happened, she doesn't even remember what Reggie said, only that it was funny, and that she had offered him a high five in response, as well as the tingling sensation going through her arm when he'd tried to reciprocate her gesture. The two of them keep staring at their hands and the point in the air where they failed to connect, wondering where their high five went wrong.

"Well, that was unexpected," Reggie says drily and Julie bursts into laughter.

It's not that funny, but Reggie joins in after a beat and they don't stop laughing until long after Alex and Luke stopped playing and share a worried look over the state of their friends.

When she's thinking about it later, the failed high five serves as a calming reminder that Julie's not alone in this.

It also helps that it keeps happening.

The day is windy and cold, clouds slowly darkening overhead and making Julie believe it'll probably start raining soon.

All in all, not the best weather conditions. For a human, that is. Reggie next to her doesn't seem bothered in the least.

Which is good, Julie thinks to herself, as he may have decided against keeping her company otherwise, quickly poofing back into the warmth of the studio, leaving her cold and alone, instead of just cold.

"What's wrong?" Reggie asks then, causing her to subconsciously wrap her thin cardigan more tightly around her shoulders.

"Oh you're cold," he realizes, stripping off his leather jacket, "you can have my jacket if you want."

Julie furrows her brows as he proceeds to cautiously drape it over her shoulders, only for it to softly float down towards the ground, as if Julie was made of air. Well, no. It's the jacket that's made of air.

"That was unexpected," Julie quips, lacing her words with teasing irony, startling a laugh out of Reggie.

Picking his jacket off the ground, he crosses his arm defensively.

"How was I supposed to know that my jacket is a ghost too?"

This time, it is kind of funny.

Her dad only lifts an eyebrow in question when he comes to retrieve her, soaked through but giddy with laughter. Reggie responds with a smug smile, for once both of them aware that Ray won't be able to see it.