Ghosted

Chapter 7: He Knows

Reggie poofs into the studio after feeling "Nick" creepily stare into his soul.

"Hey man, how's Ray?" Alex asks.

"Is Julie coming?" Luke asks.

"You good?" Alex asks picking up on the small hint of panic on Reggie face.

"Julie's friends Nick, he came to ask her something and I swear he looked right at me. Like we made eye contact and everything." Reggie says, talking really fast and all in one breath. Alex and Luke have known Reggie long enough to understand what he's staying though even if it's all run together.

"What's Nick doing here? Is he still talking to her?"

"Somebody's jealous." Alex remarks, smirking at Luke.

"I'm not jealous." Luke huffs, though anybody could tell he was jealous. Jealously was not an elegant color on anyone, especially Luke.

"Guys I'm serious, he looked right at me and it was all weird and creepy like he could read into my soul." Reggie says with wide eyes.

"It's just Nick. He's no threat." Luke says.

"Expect to maybe you and your relationship with Julie." Alex laughs.

"What relationship? We don't have a relationship other than the band and being friends."

"Denial."

"Guys!" Reggie says, getting annoyed they weren't listening to what he was trying to say. Going unheard and not being listened to was something he was use to from his parents, but not his friends. "Please, I'm not making it up okay he looked right at me. He knows, he knows something. I know it."

"Alright, no one said you're making it up." Alex says, focusing his attention away from teasing Luke and shifting gears to listen to Reggie. "Maybe you just mis-read what you saw. Maybe Nick wasn't looking at you. There's no way he could know."

"But-"

"Alright you guys ready to get rehearsing?" Julie comes into the studio.

"Yes! Finally!" Luke says grabbing his guitar.

"Julie, when you were talking to Nick I swear he looked right at me." Reggie says. She was there. She might understand. He thought. "And it was more than he was just looking at me, it was weird. It was creepy. I didn't get a good feeling."

"Oh, don't worry Nick is harmless. He was just zoned out is all." Julie tells him.

"See, nothing to worry about buddy." Luke says patting his shoulder. "Now enough about Nick, let's work on this melody."

Reggie still had an uneasy feeling about all this, but none of them were believing him. He couldn't really do anything about it. Maybe they're right, it was just his imagination.

____

Caleb knew he messed up by looking right at Reggie. An amateur move really. He knows this will put a dent in his plan. A small dent, but a dent nonetheless. Now Reggie's on to him, but he wasn't sure if that was much of a threat to his plan.

He stood outside the closed studio doors, still using Nick's body as a vessel, and listened in on their rehearsal. He heard Reggie tell Julie about what happened, but luckily for Caleb no one really took him seriously.

Caleb smiles to himself, this might actually be helpful. If no one believes him, he can start to isolate Reggie. His original plan was to strike all of them at once by getting them all to come to "Nick's uncle's club" but he doesn't mind striking them one by one. There's a lot of paths he could go down now that Reggie is actually on to him.

He stands out there listening to them rehearse for hours and work on melodies for different songs.

Jeeze how many songs did Julie and Luke write? He thought annoyed. They must be spending all their time writing.

Then he gets an idea. Earlier he listened outside the studio when Reggie and Luke were in there. All Luke seems to be interested in is writing and making music with Julie, but if she's unavailable then what? Earlier today all Luke did was lay around waiting for her. In studio. Alone.

What if Julie was suddenly unavailable. That's where Nick comes into play.

Of course, the plan wasn't perfect yet. And Caleb had to be sure his plan was full proof before going though so this time they didn't get away.

___

After band practice Alex left to go talk to Willie again, and Reggie was gonna stay in the studio with Luke and Julie but he started feeling like he was just kinda there. Like there was an imaginary wall between them. Like they were two lifers and he was a ghost who would never be able to reach them on the other side of the wall.

So instead of being there just to sit in another side of the wall, he decides to continue his search for his little brother. He started it when he found out his house got turned into a bike shack, but quickly gave up thinking he'd never find him. But now he feels incredibly guilty for giving up on him, Steve never would have given up on him. He was supposed to be his older brother, and he feels like he hasn't been a good one.

He knows finding him won't fix anything. He won't be able to apologize for leaving him alone at home sometimes to deal with his parents arguing by himself, or for not being the best role model. Which wasn't even true, Steve thought, and still does, so highly of Reggie, really looked up to him and saw him as a rock star, and friend, and the best big brother he could ask for. Reggie was the one practically raising Steve, until he died. Reggie was Steve's favorite role model, his favorite person.

Reggie just wanted to find him and see if he turned out alright. To see if he was okay, to see that he was happy. That's all he wanted, was for Steve to be happy. Maybe he made the family he and Steve dreamed they'd have with their parents.

Julie and Luke hadn't even really noticed he left at first, but then they felt it was a little too quiet in the studio.

"Wait where did Reggie go?" Julie says noticing he wasn't on the couch anymore.

"Probably the beach." Luke says knowing how much Reggie loved it there. "Or inside talking to your dad."

"Okay but we talked about letting everyone else know where you're going. What if-"

"Julie, I'm sure he's fine. Trust me I know Reggie. If he left without saying anything it's because he didn't wanna interrupt or anything."

"Okay it's just, Caleb could still be out there looking for you guys. I almost lost you the first time and I can't do that again." She says, feeling a pinching sensation in her heart, thinking back to that night when they were lying there in the studio, the stamps consuming every bit of them to the point they could barely stand.

"You're not gonna lose me, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. None of us are." Luke says, taking her hand. "You're not gonna lose any of us."

Julie looks down at the gesture, still not totally use to being able to have physical touch with the guys.

"No, I know." She says pulling her hand away, making Luke furrow his burrows in a pout. Julie thought back to what Flynn said, about not worrying about boys and take a moment for herself. "It's just I don't know what Caleb is capable of. None of us really do."

"I know, but we will figure it out together if he comes after us." Luke says. "For now, let's stop letting him control everything we do with fear and focus on the band."

Julie nods in agreement. The band. That should be priority number one, and they have a great gig offer. She forgot to mention it to the guys at practice, they were all so engrossed in the music, deep in the melody.

"And maybe...us?" Luke continues.

Julie freezes and her mind goes absolutely blank, having no idea how to respond. "Um, I gotta go work on my summer work, see ya later Luke!" She says and quickly walks away, completely avoiding the question.

Luke sighs, feeling a little embarrassed he asked about them. Now he fears he may have ruined something between them by bringing it up.