Our Connection • • Julie and The Phantoms

Chapter 7: "Wow"

A/n: Song I would recommend listening to towards the end is 'Edge of Great'! That is the song Luke and Y/n perform together with the band and it's originally Luke and Julie! But I changed it up :)

-/-/-/-/-/-

"That was amazing!" Josh says excitedly, smiling at me and let's go of my waist. "I uh. I have to go." I say before quickly letting go of Josh's hands and rush out of the room. I feel people stare at me when I run past them but I don't care. "Y/n!" Julie calls after me. I go into the music room and rub my face. The silence of the empty classroom kind of helping me calm down. "Y/n, are you okay?" Julie asks, stepping into the room. I sit down on a chair and sigh softly. "I don't know, Jules." I tell her. She walks over and sits next to me. "I was dancing with Josh and it was fine, but then I couldn't stop thinking about Luke!" I say feeling like I was out of control with myself. All I could do was think about this boy. And he was a ghost!

"You like him, Y/n. That's all that means. You have a little crush." She says, placing her hand on my arm. "But he's a ghost. If we liked each other, it would never work." I cross my arms and glare at the floor a bit. A part of my heart knew I was falling head over heels for this boy. But another bigger part of my heart knew I couldn't love him like I wanted to. I couldn't grow old with him or start a family with him. He'd be stuck in eternity in Julie's studio and I'd be growing old and moving on. We wouldn't work.

"If you don't want to have feelings for him anymore, distance yourself. Don't wear his clothes, play with his hair, sing and make eye contact with him. Just back off a bit." She says, making me nod. It wouldn't hurt to try. I had been spending a lot of time with Luke lately, even letting him sleep in my bed last night. We'd sing together and it just felt a spark of connection run through us when we'd share a microphone. But it had to change. I couldn't fall in love with a ghost.

After school, Julie invited me over to rehearsal before a show tonight at her house. The boys were already in the studio getting as hyped up as possible. I sat on the couch and Luke sat next to me to do his usual thing but I stood up before he could actually lay on me. He looks up at me confused as I walk off. "Bad news guys. I'm not feeling to well. Is there anyway we can reschedule?" Julie asks, looking at the ghosts. "Cmon, we've been planning this show for ages." Reggie whines and looks at us. "Maybe Y/n could take your place? She knows how to hit her notes." Luke says from behind me. I quickly shake my head. "No, no. I can't perform in front of people." I say, looking back at him. He walks closer to me and slowly moves his hand to intertwine with my fingers. "You've got us." I take my hand away from his before he can hold it for too long. He looks a bit taken back when I do.

"Y/n can cover for me. Let her practice Edge of Great." Julie says before heading upstairs to take some medicine and crawl into bed. I read over the lyrics on the piano and sigh softly. What had I gotten myself into.

That night, more people than I thought showed up to cheer the band on. "This is supposed to be for Julie and the Phantoms. Not her friend Y/n and the Phantoms." I say to the boys, pacing in front of them as they tried to calm me down. Alex's head moved in every direction I walked in. "You're making me dizzy." He comments once I walk by him for at least the twelfth time. Luke stands up and steps in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders. "Calm down, Y/n. You're going to do great. You have to be braver than this." He says, looking into my eyes. I feel the heat travel up to my face and know it's beet red. His hands on my shoulders and his eyes staring directly into mine. I turn my head away from him before my thoughts brought me back to us dancing earlier. He noticed I turn away from him. "Let's do this." I say, looking at Reggie and Alex. They smile at me and nod.

I open the studio doors and take my seat at Julie's piano. Pretending like the people weren't even there, I begin to play. "Running from the past, tripping on the now. What is lost can be found, it is obvious. And like a rubber ball, we come bouncing back. We all got an second act, inside of us. I believe!" I sing into the microphone reaching the first 'I believe' and know the boys appear behind me when I hear the instruments begin to play. I rock out a bunch with Reggie, making sure to keep my distance with Luke. Reggie and I share a microphone for a bit. I turn towards Alex and get him hyped up. I look over at Luke when he starts to sing and can tell his moving his head to get me to come over to him. When I don't move, he watches me as he sings.

"We all make mistakes, but they're just stepping stones to take us where we wanna go it's never straight, no." We begin to sing together as I lean back against the piano, leaning my head back. I feel myself really getting into the song as the boys get me even more hype about it. I climb on top of the piano and sing my heart out. I slowly move to sit on it, hearing Luke start his own guitar solo. He moves closer to me, playing a soft chord he strums. We make eye contact as he reaches me. "I believe. I believe that we're just one big dream away from who we're meant to be, that we're standing on the edge of great!" We smile at each other and he turns his back to lean on the piano to look up at me. I can't help but smile while continuing to sing. I move to take my seat back on the bench of the piano and place my microphone in the stand. Alex and Reggie disappear but Luke comes and sits next to me, leaning closer to me to reach my microphone. I feel my face heating up as we stare at each other.

"Running from the past. Tripping on the now. What is lost can be found, it's obvious." We sing together and I almost feel like he's going to lean in more before he disappears from beside me. I look around at everyone cheering and slowly catch my breathe. "Wow."