LA VIE EN ROSE ━ REGGIE PETERS

→ trois | saudade

Julie shot him a wide-eyed look, incredulousness decorating her features and Reggie was sure that if she could've hit him over the head, she would have. "I don't care," she whisper-yelled this time. She walked further into the studio and closer to Ace. "Who the hell is he? What is he doing here? How–how did he even get here?"

Reggie put up a finger, a proud smile hanging across his lips. "I can answer the last one." He said, pursing his lips and then putting them back into a smile. "We brought him here." He paused, frowning and then looking across the room, more specifically, at Alex. "Well, Alex brought him here."

"Wha – dude!" Alex exclaimed, raising both of his hands up in the air before letting them fall down on his thighs. He sighed, and put his forehead against his palm to collect himself. "Okay, look." He took a deep breath and focused his best puppy eyes on Julie. It didn't seem to work; still, Alex didn't stop trying. "A friend of mine came to me and said he was in trouble," he nodded towards Ace at the he. "He asked me to take him somewhere safe, I didn't know where else to go."

Julie's eyes softened just a little bit at the empathy evident in Alex's voice. The blond-haired boy looked at the ground to get out of Julie's stare and shrugged a bit before he decided to sit down in one of the chairs. "So, he's..." Julie trailed off, stealing glances at Ace while her eyes averted between the three boys. "...dead?"

Reggie nodded. "His name is Ace." He explained and walked towards the wooden table, he narrowed his eyes at the table before placing a hand on top of it. Humming when it didn't fall through immediately, he decided to take the risk and sit down on top of it. He didn't fall through, so that was a win. "We were...." He glanced at Luke, who was leaning against one of the support beams with a somewhat annoyed look on his face. Using the word friends might not be the best idea. "Well, we knew him from before we died. He was in a band, too." He paused before quickly adding. "Not ours, though!"

The Molina girl nodded along with Reggie's explanation, her eyes following his as they landed on the lead-singer who was currently awake, and a bit grumpy. "And what's with you?" She asked, a hint of teasing could be heard in her voice; but it was minimal.

"He doesn't like me,"

A small scream erupted from the three other people in the room, everybody minus Luke got startled from the sudden new voice joining the conversation. Reggie stood up from the table for a second, and Julie got a tighter hold on her chair. Alex had flinched in his seat. Luke had been the only one not with his back towards the French singer and avoided the scare.

"My bad, sorry," Ace muttered, chuckling slightly under his breath. He groaned while pushing his body upwards. Stretching his arms out, the blanket Reggie had put over him dropped to the ground. He frowned and reached for the fabric, softly stroking it. He hummed. "This is really soft." He looked between the people in the room, holding the blanket up a bit higher to show them.

"Y–Yeah," Julie stuttered, her eyes slightly widened at the fourth ghost she had met thus far.

Ace hummed again in surprise. "High quality blanket," he mumbled under his breath, a yawn escaping his lips. He rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out of them and reached for the blanket again; he draped it across his shoulders and hid his hands in the soft fabric. Ace looked across the room again, his eyes still somewhat drowsy, and blinked. "Oh, right, sorry, manners." He turned to Julie, careful not to drop the blanket from his shoulders, and extended his hand to her. "I'm Ace."

Julie exchanged a couple of glances with the three ghost she'd somewhat gotten accustomed to before looking back at Ace and his extended hand. "I–I can't. I'm not dead."

"Oh," Now, either Ace had met a lifer who could see him before, or he was still too sleepy to comprehend what Julie was saying, because he still kept his hand outreached. Julie didn't take it and went to repeat what she said, but he interrupted her with a shake of his head. "No, I know. But, still, manners."