Healing - JATP Fanfic (Luke x OC)

Chapter 5

"Julie, I need help." Brielle says, rummaging through her lack of clothes for anything decent.

"Why?" Julie, having no idea what she's talking about, is curious to see what Brielle needs. Brielle never asks for help, so this is definitely a new experience for her.

"Luke just asked me on a date." Emphasizing the words "a date", Julie, wonders why Brielle is freaking out.

"You guys haven't been on a date?" Julie wonders, ready to slap Luke for failing at the whole relationship thing.

"Not a date-date. We've hung out and watched movies in my room, but this is a real date." Brielle puts Julie on speaker phone, hoping for as much help as she can get. All she knows is Julie has a lot more experience than she does, so Julie was the best person to turn to.

"Okay. Well, first, take a deep breath. Did he mention anything about what the date might be?" Julie asks, trying to get Brielle to relax, and miraculously, it works.

"All he said was to dress nice. What does that even mean?" Although Brielle can't see Julie, she just knows Julie is really excited to hear those words, because she knows exactly what they mean.

"I'll bring over a few outfits and we'll do this in person. And Flynn is coming, too." Julie hangs up the phone before Brielle can protest.

"You have a formal date?" Aliyah barges in Brielle's room with the biggest smile on her face.

"Yes. And Julie is coming to help me with all of it." Aliyah holds a hand up to her chest, offended.

"You didn't think to ask me?"

"To be fair, you are twelve years older than me and I don't think we're even close to the same size in anything." Aliyah can't argue with either of those statements. She's half a foot taller than Brielle, who has accepted that she will be five foot three and a half for the rest of time, just a half inch shorter than Julie. Flynn is an inch shorter than Brielle, but always wears heels or shoes with enough height to make up for the lost inch.

Luke, on the other hand, is just freaking out at the fact that he is about to take Brielle on a fancy, very romantic, date. He has no idea what to wear, where to go, or anything. It was completely on a whim. Which is not a good idea.

"What does she like? I mean, have you asked her what her perfect date is? Because that would make things easier." Reggie wonders, sitting upside down on the couch with his bass in his hands.

"I have no idea. You guys should have stopped me before I did this." Reggie and Alex just wonder how that thought ended up in his head.

"We found out twenty minutes ago. When you started freaking out." Alex points out, before thinking of something she would love.

"The last few weeks she's been talking about this place towards the edge of Los Angeles that she wants to visit. It's some nature preserve that she's been obsessing over."

"Alex," Luke grabs his friend's shoulders, "you're a genius."

Planning out their date, he figures out every detail but one MAJOR one. What he's going to wear. It's supposed to be formal, but he doesn't own anything remotely formal. Except for that fancy tux he got after being forced to go to Caleb's club, but that felt wrong for the occasion. Rummaging through his clothes for the tenth time that day, he finds the perfect outfit, but has no idea how it got there. It wasn't one of the things he took with him when he left his parents, but it was from his old life. How it could have gotten there was beyond him, but it was perfect for what he needed it for.

And with only an hour until he is supposed to pick Brielle up, he changes into the outfit he found, remembering the last time he wore it.

Smoothing out the dress shirt, he stared in the mirror one more time before feeling ready to go to his junior prom. Alex had a guy friend that agreed to go with him, making Alex more than happy because everyone know that guy was gay, even if he wasn't out of the closet yet. Reggie was going with one of the many pretty girls in their high school, hoping something would come out of it, but looking back, he knows it never would have worked.