Oozing Chemistry

15th Thing's 15th

"OK, fine," Luke admits. "But if you guys are bringing up me and Julie, I'm bringing up Reggie and..."

Suddenly, Reggie throws his head back and howls to the sky. His voice ricochets off the ceiling of the studio and shakes the walls, and I quickly cover my ears, the only thing I can hear being him yelling and pounding against my head.

"What the heck was that?" the three of us ask in unison, all horrified, but Reggie's got a large smile of triumph plastered across his adorable face.

"What?" he asks innocently. "Alex can yell with Willie in a museum but when I yell in the studio, you guys get mad at me?"

"Why are you yelling in the studio?" I pipe up, last to uncover my ears.

"Why not?" He shrugs. "It's my muse." 

After hours of rehearsing, Alex and Luke disappear from the studio in search of Julie, leaving Reggie and me alone. I cross my arms and approach him as he leans his bass on an empty stand. I'm glad we're alone, at least. I definitely have some questions I need answered.

"You know. I asked Luke about that song," I start, and he quickly turns to face me with wide, nervous eyes. "He said it wasn't for the band."

"Uh," Reggie stutters, scratching the back of his head. "I can explain." I stand there in silence, waiting for him to answer, but he never does. "You know what, I would explain, but I think I hear Luke and Alex calling for me, so I'm just gonna..."

He tries to walk out, but I grab onto his wrist and pull him backward. "Unless I'm suddenly deaf to all boys but you, I don't think so." I give him a cheeky smile and squint my eyes. "It's still a great song. Why couldn't you have just told me?"

He shrugs. "I didn't want this getting weird. You're one of my best friends, Izzy. I don't wanna lose that. Plus, that's one less person I could talk to, and I'm already dying. Don't tell Ray, but sometimes the one-sided conversations are too much."

I laugh and pat his shoulder. "Newsflash, but you're already dead, and I can't talk to Ray either."

"Oh, yeah," he smiles and his gaze drifts to the sky. "I forgot." He's silent for a while, and I know he's deep in thought. Unfortunately, he's not thinking about anything too special because he says, "You know, a hot dog sounds really good right now."

I shake my head and stare blankly, blinking twice, and luckily, in comes Julie in a half-panic, half-excited manner.

"Guys, there are already people crowding in my front yard," she squeals, pacing back and forth in the studio. "What if we mess up? What if they laugh?" She turns toward Reggie, pure rage spread suddenly across her reddening face. "If you boys stand me up again, I swear to god..."

"Julie!" I shout, walking toward her with open arms. "Everything is going to be fine! We're gonna play awesomely, your dad's gonna film it, we're gonna post it on YourTube."

"YouTube."

"That, too. We're gonna be ambushed by managers and freak out because we don't know which one to pick, and when we do, it'll be the right one, and we'll all record music, go on world tours, amaze fans with our awesome albums."

"Don't forget the country one," Reggie points out with an excited smile. "These banjo hands aren't going to use themselves."

I laugh and continue to watch as Julie paces around the studio. "Oh, my god, Julie! Calm down. Everyone loved us last time and they'll love us even more this time."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I'm dead," I tell her with a straight face. "I was invited to Heaven and met God, and he told me that Julie Molina is going to kill it tonight."