Dancing Queen (Julie and The Phantoms)

15. Blushing Hearts

"Anything for my girl." Again, my heart did a somersault. His flirting is always directed at other girls, so I'm not used to being the target. Although, I could get used to it. 

"Your girl?" I squeaked.

He coughed several times before a silence roamed over. "....Maybe I should shut up before it gets weirder."

Barely whispering, I uttered, "Nothing's weird. It's fine."

Reg locked his jaw. Wait, that looks hot. Wait, focus! Leave me alone, hormones!  "Can I stay here for a while ? I can't stand looking at Alex's and Luke's stupid faces," he mentioned.

There was something about his warm touch and now shy smile that made me completely forget the reason why we were here in the first place. Right, I'm supposed to be mad at them.

Knowing it would bite me in the butt later, I said between clenched teeth. "Yeah, but I'll come back with ya."

"Seriously? You'll come back to the band?" His eyes lit up brighter than a kid on Christmas morning.

I rolled my eyes playfully. "Yes, you, dork... for the sake of Sunset Curve. Luke can't hit my high notes. And no more revenge action."

"Pinkie promise." For a moment, we let ourselves laugh, like, genuinely laugh.  After a while, Reggie sat criss-crossed. Instead of breaking his shoulder with my weight, I placed my hand on his leg. "So, business school, huh?" His smugness suddenly came back.

"I wasn't our unofficial manager for nothing. I got skills," I teased.

"Oh, I know. I remember that math project in freshman year. Couldn't have passed it without you." He winked.

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We finished catching up and talking, something that helped us both a lot. We cried a little in the process, but it made it us feel lighter. Lighter than our current transparent state, anyways.

Reggie indicated the others were at a café, so we traspassed through the door. The establishment was half-filled with clients. I wonder why here out of all the coffee places...

"Is this what we're here for? To watch people take pictures of food?" Alex complained. He was sitting on a empty table, except for a guy taking pictures of his food. When he saw me behind Reggie, he sat straighter on his chair. "Liz... hi."

"Hi."

To my surprise, he left the chair and wrapped me in a bear hug. "I'm sorry about yesterday. And every day. I should've been more considerate about your feelings. You're my little sister and my number one fan. You deserved better."

"You're gonna make me cry again!" I fake sobbed. He spun me around and then we accomodated ourselves on the table.

"After we poof out of here, we'll go to the theatre show we saw on the pamphlet... That's if you're staying, of course. We won't force you to anything, okay?" He squeezed my palm.

"I'm staying alright. You can't get rid of me that easily," I joked.

I turned to Reggie who was occupied by moving the person's plate all over the surface while they were on their phone. They grabbed it and left, leaving the seat empty for the missing band member.

"Luke said something about last night about this place being a hot spot for music industry people," Reggie chimed in.

The guitarist, who was previosly in the register, bounced to the table. "Boys, being a ghost definitely has it's privileges. I just wrote our names on the playlist for tonig— hello."

I waved once, not really wanting to look him in the eyes. Luke was the hardest one to forgive, especially when I also did so much for him. His pride overtook what could make him better. Yet, his smiling from before instantly vanished. 

"I'm getting a little worried about him," my brother smirked, then dropped it to make more emphasis. "He keeps forgetting Julie quit the band".

"And she's gonna come back. Just as soon as she knows we have a great gig." I'm pretty sure Luke was staring at me when he talked. I scoffed. Boy, that guy can't make a sincere apology.

"But if she doesn't come back, let's not forget, we do have somewhere else we can play... and eat pizza," the bassist reminded.

"I just came back and you're considering playing for him without asking me?" I crossed my arms. Reg puckered his lips into an exaggerated kissy face and got closer, so I playfully shoved his head away from me. "You're so gross."

"It was awesome to be seen by lifers at Caleb's party, but... but we got this with Julie. We don't need him," Luke argumented.

Just when things were peeking at the brighter side, I felt a jolt erupting on my chest. The worst part was seeing the guys shifting on their seats as well. "You guys too?" I panted.

No rubbing or massage made the pain fade away. "It's the same thing again."

"Just like yesterday!"

"I'm getting a heart attack all over again." It still hurts, but my mind travelled elsewhere. That could be a great lyric song.

"It feels like the time I was fixing my amp in the rain," Reg explained. What?

Mine and Alex's jaw hung lower. "You shouldn't... okay. Look, do you think something's wrong with us?"

"Yeah, yeah. We ate 10 pounds of pizza yesterday without a stomach. I'm sure it's just our bodies working through it."

But I barely ate something at the club. There's gotta be a puzzle piece we're missing to analyze.

Reggie noticed my scowl. His reaction was to gently shove my shoulder. "And we're gonna forget about getting back at Trevor... even though that jerk stole our music," he muttered that last part. At least he's trying.

"And he has to live with that guilt. It's just like Julie said. We have a new band, a new sound, okay? That's what we should be focusing on."

Alex shot his head up outside. "Isn't that Willie?" We glanced at the window. Yup, he definitely is! I could recognize that mane of hair anywhere. His eyes widened at the unexpected eye contact. so he stormed off faster than a tumbleweed in a windy desert.

My brother's instinct pushed him to follow him. "Well, someone's not focusing on our music," the bassist mocked.

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Author's note:

So... big romantic gestures on this chapter! I can't write from experience, so I'm pulling ideas from what I would like to happen to me *smiles through the singleness*

~ Winter ❅