[1] Blank Slate || Julie and the Phantoms ✔

CHAPTER 10: Stolen ✔️

"Isn't Dad supposed to be the man of the house?" Julie asks to humor him, crossing her arms.

"There can be two!" Carlos protests before leaving. We chuckle to ourselves. "And Dad needs all the help he can get, right? According to the internet, salt burns their souls out."

Carlos reveals a salt shaker with a flourish of his hand and the boys' faces fall, shifting to ones of fear.

"A little sprinkle will keep them from ever coming in here," he promises.

"Are you sure you want to waste the salt?" I jump in. "You can't believe everything you read on the internet."

"The internet says ghosts exist and no one believed that," Carlos shoots back. "They clearly do and I'm not taking any chances."

Before we can stop him, he shakes the salt around, spraying Alex who screams in terror.

"No!!" Alex pulls his arms to his chest as protection. "Oh, God I'm..."

We all stare in horror, waiting for him to vaporize or something.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he announces, "I'm totally fine."

Julie looks to Flynn for her to distract Carlos. She catches on.

"Oh! Carlos, you know who's hungry? Me," Flynn says, "Um, salt me a path to the kitchen."

The two leave the studio, and we exhale.

"Phew," Alex murmurs.

"Shall we try this again?" I ask.

"Yes, please," Luke says, "but remind us later, there are some Sunset Curve songs I wanna show you."

"Not 'Now or Never,'" I say with a horrified shake of my head.

"No, not 'Now or Never,'" he chuckles.

"Why not just show us now?" Julie suggests.

"Okay," Luke replies, rushing to get everything ready. "'Home is where my horse is?' Reggie, stop putting your country songs in my journal."

"That was a gift," Reggie says. I grin. Gotta love Reg.

"Thanks, buddy." Luke claps him on the back with his journal.

"You've got one too?" I ask. "Why didn't you mention that before when I showed you mine?"

"It just didn't feel like the right time," Luke replies. "I dog-eared the ones that I think you would slay."

"I think maybe we should circle back..." Reggie continues.

I shake my head, laughing as I open Luke's journal. One page catches my eye. "Who's Emily?"

I hold it out for Julie to skim the page too.

"That one's not dog-eared." Luke lurches forward for his notebook and I get the impression that he's scared.

"Well now I have to know," I reply, then read out a line. "'If you could only know that I never let you go.' Awww, that's so sweet Lukey. This girl must have been pretty special."

I try to lose this feeling of jealousy, but it seems to creep back without permission.

"Wow, Luke, I didn't know you were such a romantic," Julie teases as we hover over his journal like gossip girls.

"He's not. That ones actually about---" Alex starts.

"---No one." Luke cuts in with panic. He pauses and composes himself, hiding his feelings. "Uh, that's just something that I tried, and..."