𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐈𝐍𝐆 ; Luke Patterson

VIII. STRINGS OF FATE

Luke blinked, offended. He feigned a hand over his heart and jokingly pouted. Dahlia stuck her tongue out at him.

"Maybe you should be happy we have our first gig," Reggie added, taking Dahlia's side as Luke huffed, beginning to give into the idea more than he'd like to admit.

"I wasn't in love with the idea at first either," Julie began, cutting into the conversation as she watered the plants, "but it could be a great way for us to build a following, right?"

"Yeah!" Reggie beamed with agreement, "yeah—we need to play wherever we can, whenever we can."

"No, you're right," Luke nodded enthusiastically, "let's rock those kids' faces off and then play the clubs."

"I'm not so sure you guys will go from a school dance to a club, but...sure." Dahlia said with a sarcastic smile, one that no one noticed was satire as they were too caught up in their fantasies.

"And then record a single that gets a billion streams?" Julie added with a grin. Luke beamed at this.

"I don't know what that is, but hopefully it gets us a manager and a tour."

"Then we release a bunch of hit albums." Julie gushed with excitement.

"Put out a country album that does surprisingly well," Reggie chirped, watching the confused stares he began to receive as he explained, "I shred on the banjo, so..."

Julie giggled.

"Then I'll learn how to fiddle." She promised, fist pumping the bassist.

"Before you know it were being inducted into the Rock 'n' Rock Hall of Fame!"

Dahlia's eyebrows raised as Luke's voice raised in volume, completely taken over by his passion for music. His eyes lit up with the familiar spark that appeared when he wrote and sang.

"...But one of us isn't there," Reggie suddenly said dramatically, "because we had a blowout in 2032. My money's on Alex—he's just so sensitive."

Dahlia playfully rolled her eyes and shoved Reggie's shoulder with a gentle scoff. Poor Alex.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get rehearsing!" Luke exclaimed, hands in the air.

"Uh," Julie scrunched her nose, the adrenaline of their musical fantasies dying down, "where is Alex?"

Reggie blinked, looking around the room.

"Good point!" He said, turning his head around as he searched for his friend, "Alex? Alex?"

Reggie called out as he began to search the garage.

"Reggie, I don't think he's here—" Julie began, her voice dying out as Luke shook his head.

"Just—let him. He'll figure it out in a second," Luke said, his voice low as Julie nodded, amusement evident in her expression.

A few seconds later followed, until Reggie came back to the others with a defeated frown. "Yeah, I don't...I don't think he's here."

Dahlia ruffled his hair.

"Where is he, anyways?" Luke said after a moment.

The brunette felt herself stiffen slightly. She remembered Alex mentioning something about hanging out with his new friend Willie when they had been in her room earlier that morning, but she had a hunch that it was more that just 'hanging out'.

She knew the way Alex's face turned red whenever she mentioned the skater, and how he would start mumbling and stuttering over his words when he was brought up in conversation.