𝐑𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 | 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐬

𝟑𝟏 | 𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝

When we arrived at the garage, Luke flopped back into the chair. Luckily for me, Julie, Alex and Reggie were already set up and had started rehearsing.

"Whoa, Julie!" Luke exclaimed, shooting back up from the chair.

"Happy birthday!" I cheered.

"Grab your guitar," Julie said. "We got work to do."

Luke chuckled as he picked up his guitar. As he made his way over to Julie, I made my way over to Alex and Reggie.

"Sorry, I totally took credit for everything that's happening right now," I admitted.

"Eh, you did most of the work," Alex shrugged. "It's fine."

"As long as you didn't rat us out for watching him from afar," Reggie pointed an accusing finger at me.

"You mean, stalking?" I laughed. "No, I didn't. I think I'm getting good at secrecy."

"We're so proud of you," Alex stated.

"Wait, you're not keeping any secrets from us, though, are you?" Reggie asked, panicked.

"I don't know," I teased. "Am I?"

"Hey and look," Alex gestured to the instruments. "Set it up all by ourselves. You proud?"

"Almost," I said snapping my fingers to correct any errors. "The bass was plugged into the microphone jack. I don't even know how you managed to do that, they both have completely different cables."

Alex gave Reggie a questioning look. "You should stick to playing bass."

"Noted."

"Let's go from the pre-chorus!" Julie said.

As the guys got ready to play, I began to make my way over to the sofa. Luke stopped me.

"Hey," He said, gently holding onto my arm. "Thank you. This is the second best birthday present ever."

"Rude!" I joked. "I only got your band back from the dead. What could possibly be better?"

"Honestly, I was hoping for another kiss."

I chuckled. "Get through this rehearsal and we'll see."

"Oh, you're gonna make me work for it now?"

"You have been slacking off all day," I pointed out.

"Fine," Luke turned to the band. "Alright, let's do this!"

———

"Yo! This place is packed!"

We arrived at the venue before the show to have a look around. The place was packed with a bunch of important-looking people. The guys were pumped.

"Wait until Julie sees this," Reggie beamed.

"She won't regret rejoining the band," Luke said. "And we'll make sure of it, right boys?"

"Yup!"

"Totally!"

"Where is she anyway?" I asked, checking my watch. "The show starts soon."

"I don't know," Alex said. "Maybe there's traffic."

"We better go check on her," Luke said. "Just incase she has cold feet or something."

"We'll be right back," Reggie said, before they all disappeared.

I was left alone in the crowd.

"Cool, I'll just stay here then!" I yelled to no one. "All by myself!"